By José Manuel Serrano Esparza. LHSA
July 9th 2008
July 9th 2008
With the next Photokina Köln 2008 quickly approaching and the great expectation brought about by the very probable launching into market of the new superb autofocus Leica R System featuring an autofocus professional digital SLR full frame camera along with a wide array of autofocus lenses (including some top-notch autofocus zooms with maximum f/2.8 aperture), during the last two months there have been some people stating that ´ the manual focusing Leica R Lenses are obsolete´, that ´ they don´t give very good quality ´ , that ´they are not autofocus´ (sic), that ´the Leica R Manual Focusing Lenses are a dead system´ ´that they won´t be compatible with the new autofocus Leica R System´ and similar things.
That´s why I´d like to give my opinion on the topic, because from my standpoint the current (23rd June 2008) manual focusing Leica R System Lenses for 24 x 36 format are with difference in a very high percentage of cases the most high quality array of objectives for full frame reflex cameras in the world.
Leica R9 with Apo-Summicron-R 90 mm f/2 ASPH. If Leica is able to offer an autofocus full frame reflex system featuring a comparable or even better mechanical and optical performance to the already world class existing manual focusing Leica R cameras and lenses, this would add to the great gamble made by Nikon with the Nikon D3 and D700 full frame models, and would very probably open a new and very fascinating age in the history of photography.
That´s why I´d like to give my opinion on the topic, because from my standpoint the current (23rd June 2008) manual focusing Leica R System Lenses for 24 x 36 format are with difference in a very high percentage of cases the most high quality array of objectives for full frame reflex cameras in the world.
Leica R9 with Apo-Summicron-R 90 mm f/2 ASPH. If Leica is able to offer an autofocus full frame reflex system featuring a comparable or even better mechanical and optical performance to the already world class existing manual focusing Leica R cameras and lenses, this would add to the great gamble made by Nikon with the Nikon D3 and D700 full frame models, and would very probably open a new and very fascinating age in the history of photography.Regarding the Leica R- Series Cameras, after strenuous beginnings (due to the tremendous competition of many Japanese reflex camera firms) with the Leicaflex 1964-1968, the Leicaflex SL 1968-1974, and the Leicaflex SL2 1974-1976, a completely and more up-to-date generation of Leitz reflex cameras started with the Leica R3 (featuring the latest advances in micro electronics, an electronic shutter very variable between 4 sec and 1/1000 sec, a usable mechanical speed of 1/90 usable in case of battery failure, viewfinder equipped with full display and focusing achieved using split image rangefinder, center spot microprism or ground glass surround, a rapid load system, delayed action and a depth of field preview button, together with a very accurate metering system with both integrated and spot choices, etc); the Leica R4 1980-1986 (boasting a highly sophisticated metering system with five different modes and an electronic Leitz/Seiko designed shutter, data recording back and also a large capacity back); the Leica R5 1986-1992 (with TTL flash exposure measurement, extended shutter speed range from 15 to 1/2000 sec, LED symbols for control of the camera displayed in the viewfinder and lying outside the image area and keeping five exposure modes very similar to the five in Leica R4); the Leica R6 1988-1992 and R6.2 1992 (two formidable entirely mechanical cameras –in which aperture and shutter speed have to be set manually- built in the most pure style of toughness and reliability of the Swiss Alpas, made at the then new Leica factory in Solms, and provided with a mechanically controlled metal-blind focal plane shutter; the Leica R7 1992 (with versatile integral or selective, flash as primary source or fill-in TTL flash metering, increased exposure meter sensitivity, DX coding, automatic battery check display in viewfinder, etc); the Leica R8 1996 and Leica R9 2002 - a refined R8 with high speed flash synchronization of 1/8000s and 100 g less- ( formidable photographic tools designed by Manfred Meinzer, which meant a great step forward in R-Line cameras for Leica: different operating modes - Manual, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Program and Flash-, Copal vertically running metal leaf unit, 1/8000-32 sec in automatic mode or 16 seconds in half stops steps in manual mode as well as bulb, flash synch of 1/250 sec, automatic DX coding ISO 25-5000 and manual ISO 6-12800, viewfinder coverage of 93%, metering range EV –4 through EV 20, entirely made of metal (specially sophisticated zinc and aluminium) together with a synthetic base and rubber, motor drive getting 4,5 frames/sec, different metering methods –selective with 7 mm central area, 6 element matrix, center weighted and flash TTL center weighted, etc) which from the appearance of the Leica Modul R (the first digital interchangeable back for a 35 mm format analog camera) in December 2004, became two hybrid cameras with a double choice for the photographer: to use them with film or digitally (with the 1,37x 26,4 x 17,6 mm 10MP resolution CCD sensor featured by the Leica Digital Modul R, based on the proven 6.8 microns pixel architecture already used in digital backs for medium format cameras, offering a colour depth of 16 bits, great tonal range, ISOS between 100 and 1600, JPEG with two levels of compression, uncompressed TIFF and direct RAW from the sensor, also sporting an absence of antialias filter, which improves the image quality) and getting great results in both cases.
Transversal section of the Leica R62, a great SLR camera made between 1992 and 1997 and conceived in order that the photographer can take all the important decisions, allowing him to implement his own creative ideas, without any kind of restrictions imposed by automatic exposure controls.
Its highly accurate mechanical shutter guarantees repeatable and evenly exact shutter speeds, even under extreme environments.
Its pentaprism is made with impressive thoroughness and coated with pure silver, while the semitransparent tilting mirror features 17 layers inside a vacuum chamber. The result is absolutely amazing: an extraordinary image through the viewfinder: tremendously clear, luminous and contrasty, even under scarce ambient light photographic contexts.
Id est, the Leica R62 is almost on a par with the out of this world viewfinders of manual focusing Olympus OM-1, manual focusing OM-2, and manual focusing Leica R8 and Leica R9. On the other hand, apart from a very useful mirror lock-up function to avoid all kind of vibrations, the Leica R62 also boasts a rather comprehensive TTL metering system, whose epicentre is a silicon photodiode in the bottom of mirror box, which receives light reflected from a special reflector located behind the mirror, and consisting of 1345 micro reflectors in a Fresnel pattern.
There are three possible metering choices: a) Center Weighted Average mode by reflecting light directly to photo cell (reading from the entire image area); b) Spot Mode with a concentrating lens moving in front of the photo cell (reading from a 7 mm central area whose angle changes depending on the lens in use but is always visible as a circle in the viewfinder).
This is a very important metering system when the photographer has to face difficult light conditions and so is compelled to select a part of the theme which is the most important for the correct exposure and will determine its values; c) Flash Exposure Metering, enabling accurate adjustments at any focal length, having particularly proved its efficiency with the superb Metz flashes ( through SCA 300 or 500) which deliver a wonderful quality of light.
Elmarit-R 19 mm f/2.8 ROM, a top class super wide-angle and currently the best lens in the world in the 18-21 mm scope for a SLR full frame camera. It features 12 elements in 10 groups, a floating element, a weight of 560 g and a focusing range from 0.3 m to infinity.
Launched into market in 1990, this lens has been and goes on being now in 2008 the world monarch in its focal length in terms of brutal image quality and incredible lack of distortion, being utterly rectilinear to practical effects, in such a degree that photographs taken with this incredible lens show outstanding impact and dramatic effect in such photographic genres as fashion, architecture, landscape, etc, but always with the proportions appearing quite natural, a tremendous optical feat by Leica, bearing in mind that this tour de force lens features an extreme focal length.
Thanks to its f/2.8 high speed, it´s also very suitable for candid photography and photojournalism. It includes a built-in filter turret with a x1 ND filter, yellow/green, orange and blue conversion filter for artificial light on daylight film.
Its compactness and low weight are remarkable, along with the exceptional sharpness and the ability to reproduce straight lines without a trace of distortion it delivers.
This is the made in Germany second version of the Elmarit-R 19 mm f/2.8, which improved the first one launched into market in 1975 and designed by Walter Mandler at the Leitz factory in Midlands (Ontario), which sported a very good image quality but lacked top-notch performance in the close-up distances because it hadn´t a built-in floating element and at the same time it was a prone to flare lens, since the diameter of the front element was very large (82 mm compared with the 72 mm of the second version).
Apart from that, evidently Mandler couldn´ t use the machines and all kind of very up-to-date devices available in late eighties for the design of the second version, and among others, top priority for him was to attain the best feasible curvature field by intentionally introducing some levels of astigmatism and he had to optimize the design for the center of the image.
This way, with Mandler´s first version vignetting usually exceeds 2.5 diaphragm and some distortion appeared both in the corners and the nearest distances.
Rear diagonal view of the Elmarit-R 19 mm f/2.8 ROM. We can see the nine golden contacts for transmission of data to the current manual focusing R8, R9 and very probably the upcoming autofocus R10 digital, though with lenses between 14 mm and 35 mm the lavish depth of field greatly minimizes the need of autofocus.
Spectacular the traditional scales of f stops, distances and depth of field engraved on the lens barrel, together with the impressive mechanizing, sturdiness, accuracy and high quality of the metal visible in the Leica R bayonet.
Aerial view of the Elmarit-R 19 mm f/2.8 ROM, once more with the golden ROM contacts and a superb handcrafted mechanizing work. Pay attention to the very thorough way in which the ten screws have been adjusted.
Leica has always underlined not only the worldly renowned optical quality of its products, but also the mechanical one. On the other hand, this lens has proved to have great synergy with digital sensors.
Summicron-R 35 mm f/2 ROM. Launched into market in 1976, it goes on being now in 2008, 32 years after its inception, the best lens in the world in its focal length and speed for full frame reflex cameras and almost impossible to beat, rendering a wonderful image quality with great crispness and contrast even at full aperture and a very remarkable elimination of reflexes.
Deemed by many experts the most versatile lens with a very beautiful angle of image coverage, wisely complementing the standard 50 mm focal length and the likewise very versatile few lenses featuring 40 m focal length as the mythical Olympus Zuiko 40 mm f/2.
It features six elements in six groups and a weight of 430 g, its focusing range being between 0.30 m and infinite.
This world class lens was designed by Walter Mandler in Midlands (Ontario) and made in Wetzlar (Germany), and is the second version of a saga which began with the first version of Summicron-R 35 mm f/2 featuring 9 elements in 7 groups, slightly more optimized for the corners, launched into market in 1972 and produced until 1976. Great synergy with digital sensors.
Vario-Elmar-R 80-200 mm f/4, a high quality zoom with very interesting price/performance ratio. It features 12 elements in 9 groups and a weight of 1020 g. A zoom lens optimized for the range 80-145 mm, rendering very good quality at full aperture f/4 and superb between f/5.6 and f/11. Its vignetting values are around 1 diaphragm, revealing slight pincushion distortion in short and medium focal lengths and a bit stronger in the longest ones.
The image quality this zooms lens is able to deliver matches a good percentage of the best lenses with fixed focal lengths, getting very good resolving power and contrast, and is particularly suitable for hand held shots because of its compactness. Its minimum focusing distance is 1,1 m. Very good symbiosis with digital sensors, specially the ones featuring great image quality at high sensitivity between 800 and 2000.
Lying view of the Vario-Elmar-R 80-200 mm f/4 ROM, currently in 2008 the world reference for full frame reflex cameras in its range of focal lengths and constant f/4 diaphragm, also featuring a very interesting price.
The great photographs made in Costa Rica by David Young of hummingbirds, cactus flowers and birds on the Sarapiquí River with a Canon 20D attached through adapter to a Vario-Elmar-R 80-200 mm f/4 ROM have very clearly proved the impressive optical performance of this lens, rendering a superb image quality in association with a good digital sensor (something which also happens with a high percentage of manual focusing Leica R lenses).
If the upcoming Leica R10 autofocus is able to render very good image quality at high sensitivities between iso 1000 and 2000, this very top-notch zoom could be a tremendous weapon in the hands of experienced pros and connoisseurs in contexts where they have time to think, focus manually and working stopping down, searching for maximum quality with the added benefit of a highly exciting kind of harking back to the future.
On the left of the image the nine golden ROM contacts for transmission of data between lens and camera can be seen, apart from the painstaking finishing of both mechanizing of the Leica R mount and the slightly scalloped zooming and focusing rings.
Apo-Summicron-R 180 mm f/2, a monster of image quality and mechanical manufacture. Launched into market in 1994, this lens is currently in 2008, fourteen years after its introduction, very clearly the best in the world in its focal length and aperture.
It features 9 elements in 6 groups and a weight of 2,500 kg with a plain protection filter permanently fixed in front of the forward element. Internal focusing down to 1.5 m preserves balance, keeping the length of the lens constant. It also sports a built-in high quality and extensible hood, which is reinforced by means of rubber.
This true apochromatic ´Rolls-Royce´ telephoto lens, another one optical tour de force made by Leica, renders a superb image performance throughout the whole frame, from the center to the extreme corners, getting a tremendous quality of image at maximum f/2 full aperture, with top resolution, impressive hue separation and high contrast, improving very little on stopping it down, however incredible it may seem.
There isn´t any trace of field curvature, astigmatism and coma either, and the internal focusing enables the length to be the same, firm to handhold and comfortable to use. However, the best results will be obtained with a tripod or monopod.
Its focusing range goes from 1.5 m to infinity. It also excels reproducing colours with an amazing accuracy and delicate nuances.
Tremendous association with high quality digital sensors, setting differences at full aperture, which allows the photographer to achieve top quality from low isos and very beautiful bokehs out of the reach of most lenses featuring this focal length.
For instance, its aptitude for portraits with out of focus backgrounds both outdoors and indoors in studio work and the absolutely plentiful level of detail captured in the subjects is so great that it approaches in this respect the one boasted by specialized lenses for 4 x 5 ´ large format cameras, and always with the added bonus of top-notch contrast in both center and extreme corners of the image surface and wonderful transition curve from blurred zones to in focus areas.
Spectacular lateral view of the Apo-Summicron-R 180 mm f/2, a lens boasting an showy appearance and a brutal optical feat by Leica, since at f/2 it slightly beats the performance of Walter Mandler´s great Apo-Telyt-R 180 mm f/3.4 at f/3.4, which in its turn is nowadays one of the best lenses for SLR full frame cameras in the world, albeit it was launched into market in 1975.
The ability of the Apo-Summicron-R 180 mm f/2 to capture even the most concealed details under dimly illuminated photographic contexts (specially in theatre stages, all kind of concerts, etc) at full aperture f/2 can only be defined as formidable, also being a very suitable tool for sports, photography of wild animals, glamour contests, natural locations at dawn and twilight and so forth.
The sharpness and definition attained are incredible, often being able to reproduce details not visible for a human being, even from long distances, and wiping out stray light with all kind of subjects.
Apo-Summicron-R 180 mm f/2 with its hood fully extended. Another remarkable trait of this lens is that it renders the same wondrous image quality both at infinity and the nearest distances.
On the other hand, this is one of the Leica lenses that better epitomizes how the German firm strives after achieving very sharp outlines of the photographic themes, which is considered something of paramount importance for the global image quality.
Besides, this lens has proved to preserve a tremendous image quality with the Apo-Extender R 1,4 x attached ( becoming a 252 mm f/2.8) and very good performance with the Apo-Extender-R 2x (becoming a 360 mm f/4), with the manifold advantages it has.
Telyt-R 350 mm f/4.8, launched into market in 1980 and produced until 1994. It features 7 elements in 5 groups and a weight of 1820 g. A fairly useful long telephoto lens delivering very good image quality at full aperture and superb from f/5.6 on.
This lens is rermarkable because of its very interesting price/quality ratio in the second hand market where it can be often found in A/B or nearly mint condition, and was firstly tested with outstanding results during the 1980 Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid (USA).
It sports a fully automatic diaphragm and a reinforced rubberised focusing ring, together with a built-in lens hood and tripod bush. The focusing distance encompasses from 3 meters to infinite.
Evidently, this lens doesn´t render a superlative image quality on a par with the most up-to-date truly apochromatic and aspherical designs made by Leica from nineties, but residual chromatic aberrations have been minimized to negligible levels in practical situations and it becomes this impressive lens into a very valuable tool able to give utter professional image quality with very contained bulk, volume and weight, bearing in mind its very long focal length.
You can even attach it the Extender-R 1,4 x getting good quality, though attaching it the Extender-R 2x converter is not recommended with this lens.
Good fine detail reproduction and contrast, particularly in the image center which makes it very suitable for DSLR APS-C digital sensors.
It´s very important to bear in mind that this Telyt 350 mm f/4.8 designed by Walter Mandler in Midlands (Ontario) epitomizes very well the achieved goal of creating a top-notch image quality long telephoto performer featuring a moderate full aperture and reducing production costs as much as possible with a favourable market price, but able at the same time to produce pro imagery, since the optical Mozart with limited budgets optimised the sharpness of the contours of subjects, knowing that it was impossible to have good definition of the corners of the image surface at full aperture under those incredible parameters of fostering top possible image quality with minimum investment which he fixed in advance.
A lens rendering very sharp images both in association with full frame digital sensors and APS-C digital ones. It can be upgraded with ROM golden contacts by Leica.
Macro-Elmarit-R 60 mm f/2.8 ROM, a very versatile and high quality lens, very suitable for landscape photography and portraits. It gets a reproduction ratio of 1:2, reaching 1:1 with the Macro-Adapter-R attached . Its optical formula includes 6 elements in 5 groups, with a weight of 400 g.
It renders an impressive image quality, excelling in photography with available light, thanks to its great f/2 aperture. Besides, it boasts a Numantine resistance to flare and captures superbly the subtle tonal differences, both in light and shaded zones, even in contexts with high degrees of contrast. Its subtle focusing range goes from 27 cm to infinite.
It was launched into market in 1972, and in spite of the 36 years elapsed, it is now in 2008 one of the best lenses for full format in the world, achieving a tremendous optical performance on the whole surface of the image, even at full aperture, though reaching its best around f/4.
This lens exhibits a very remarkable ability to capture even the most minute details from centre to borders and distortion is very low, negligible to practical effects.
A top performer which endures very well the comparison with the Apo-Macro-Elmarit 100 mm f/2.8 and the Summicron-R 50mm f/2 (two of the most high quality lenses in the Leica R line-up), attaining very high definition, crispness and contrast.
Always without forgetting the very remarkable LEICA R MANUAL FOCUS LENSES, with difference currently the best 35 mm format objectives in the world for reflex cameras, featuring masterpieces like the Super-Elmar-R 15 mm from 1980; the Elmarit-R 19 mm 1975-1990 (another jewel designed by Walter Mandler); the Super-Angulon-R 21 mm f/4 1968-1994; the Elmarit-R 24 mm f/2.8 (a fantastic tool for photojournalism inside confined spaces with amazing perspectives); the Elmarit-R 28 mm f/2.8 (with 8 elements in 7 groups, boasting a floating element construction which greatly improves performance in the near focusing ring range down to 30 cm); the 35 mm Summicron f/2 the Summilux-R 35 mm f/1.4 from 1980 (another floating element design in which distortion has been reduced to a very low value, coma has been virtually eliminated, light sources in the picture do not produce flare and the great correction achieves maximum contrast at low light levels); the Summicron R 50 mm f/2; the Summilux-R 50 mm f/1.4; the Macro-Elmarit- R 60 mm f/2.8 from 1972; the Summilux-R 80 mm f/1.4 (a very high performance lens for portraits and all kinds of available light photography); the Elmarit 90 mm f/2.8; the Apo-Macro-Elmarit-R 100 mm f/2.8 (a fast macro lens with apochromatic correction and an exceptional performance over the whole focusing range from infinity to 0,45 m); the Elmarit-R 135 mm f/2.8 (a great lens for portraits); the Apo-Summicron-R 180 mm f/2 ( a superelite lens with true apochromatic correction, featuring 9 elements in 6 groups, which attains a superb image quality, taking advantage of its great luminosity, specially in cases where a long focal length is needed and there´s little light available, above all on all kinds of stages where low illumination creates the right atmosphere and this lens exceeds getting very high levels of detail and colour differentiation); the Elmarit-R 180 mm f/2.8 from 1980 (also getting a fantastic image quality in all kind of low light environments in which is necessary to be at a certain distance from the subjects, besides being 605 g lighter than the old 1968-1979 Elmarit-R 180 mm f/2.8 design, thanks to the use of new materials, which also improve the image quality); the Apo-Telyt-R 180 mm f/3.4 from 1975 (one of the best lenses designed by Walter Mandler, sporting an out of this world apochromatic correction); the Telyt-R 250 mm f/4 1980-1994; Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/2.8 in its two versions 1984-1996 and 1992-1996 (an authentic Rolls-Royce performance fast true apochromatic lens, featuring internal focusing and designed to be used by itself or in combination with the 2x Extender-R to offer a 560 mm f/5.6 telephoto lens with hardly a very little loss of image quality); the Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/4 (a formidable lens, getting perhaps the best picture image of the whole Leica R system); the Telyt-R 350 mm f/4.8 1980-1994 (a long tele lens with very interesting ratio between focal length and maximum aperture, suitable for handheld shots and getting very high quality of image); the Apo-Telyt-R 400 mm f/2.8 from 1992-1996 (the best 400 mm for 35 mm format ever made on earth, sporting 11 elements in 9 groups and the classical neutral filter which must always be in place unless a different filter is in use. An authentic Bugatti of the long tele lenses, very suitable for all type of nature and sports photography); the Vario-Elmar-R 35-70 mm f/3.5; the Vario Elmarit-R 35-70 mm f/2.8 Asph 1998-2002 (an impressive zoom able to render high level fixed lens performance in all of its focal lengths, rendering superb image quality and currently a very sought after icon); the current
Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 Aspherical ( very compact, with 11 elements in 8 groups and 740 g, a superb all around zoom that can handle a wide array of photographic situations rendering impressive image quality even at full aperture); the Vario-Apo-Elmarit-R 70-180 mm f/2.8 in its two versions (the 1995-1998 and with ROM contacts from 1998); the Vario-Elmar-R 105-280 mm f/4.2 from 1996; the incredible zoom Vario-Elmar-R 21-35 mm f/3.5-4 (the best wideangle zoom for 35 mm standard in history, boasting a tremendously low level of distortion and suitable for indoor architecture.
Elmarit-R 135 mm f/2.8, a very compact medium telephoto lens rendering excellent resolution and high contrast at full aperture. It features 5 elements in 4 groups and a weight of 730 g.
Very suitable for handheld shots, specially portraits becoming the subject the epicentre of the photograph with the background blurred and smooth transition from in focus to out of focus areas, with the added effect of compressing the foreground and background together, which changes the impression of space. Its distortion levels are very low, almost non existent to practical effects.
This is another very interesting lens designed by Walter Mandler in Midlands (Ontario) and introduced in 1968 (with a new optical formula, convex rear element and triple cam, replacing the early models sporting a concave rear element and single cam), that´s to say, 40 years ago. But incredibly, this lens goes on being now in 2008 a very good performer under current standards.
Though not a super sharp performer, it delivers a wonderful image quality with great aesthetic properties. The wizardry of Mandler is very present in this optical design able to get a wide variety of blues typical in Leica when shooting under the shadow and rich enough colour tonalities when photographing at dawn with the first sun rays.
Intentionally, Walter Mandler optimised the lens resolution and contrast from f/4 on, but did keep some degree of aberrations for full aperture f/2.8, knowing in advance that many people would use the lens for making portraits, so priorities for him were great aesthetic beauty of image and certain levels of vintage softness in the reproduction of faces together with a smooth transition between depth of field of blurred areas, following in this regard the premises of the classical large format portraiture of the two first decades of Twentieth Century to conceal as much as possible defects on the skin of the photographed people. ROM contacts can be attached by Leica.
A lens with very interesting price/quality/distinctive type of image ratio.
Leica R8, a formidable SLR camera, introduced in the 1996 Photokina Köln. Designed by Manfred Meinzer, with this state-of-the-art and very up-to-date model, Leica made a quantum leap in the reflex cameras domain and offered a great photographic tool offering an incredibly wide range of different possibilities on shooting which made it the most advanced and complete SLR camera in the world, in spite of being still a manual focusing masterpiece.
Among its main features, we must highlight an utterly metallic manufacture, shutter speeds between 32 sec and 1/8000 sec (in automatic modes) and between 16 sec and 1/8000 (in manual adjustments), a Copal vertically running metal leaf focal plane shutter, mirror lock-up, maximum flash synchronization speed of 1/250, a very comprehensive and refined TTL flash metering, both previous to the shots and during them, choice of flash sync to the first or second curtain, integral motorizing through either the Winder R8 or the Motor R8, a semitransparent mirror featuring a 17 layers multicoating and another Fresnel mirror inside which resends the light to the metering system (this was already built-in in the Leica R6 and R62), etc.
Cutaway of the Leica R8 with Summilux-R 50 mm f/1.4 revealing the profusion of high level electronics it sports, in spite of being a manual focusing camera.
Indeed, a high percentage of the many different functions of the camera are controlled by a powerful microprocessor. Really impressive the configuration of the main dials, buttons and selectors deeply incrusted in the camera body to make them as much unobtrusive as possible to the photographer.
We can also see (specially on the left of the image) the top-notch and elaborate mechanical components of the camera, made with the best and most noble metals available, and assembled with incredibly narrow tolerances, allowing for a tremendous working accuracy.
Leica fulfils a kind of ´Rolls-Royce´ mechanic engineering inside the R8, with plenty of gear wheels, flywheels, very hard and flexible springs, top quality ball bearings, etc, which are handcraftedly tested by Leica, unit by unit (under the most severe climate conditions and constant changes in extreme temperatures) before inserting everything inside the body of the camera.
On the other hand, the beauty of lines of the Leica R8 (in the same way as the R9) is absolutely wonderful, a marvel of creativity and good taste, and featuring a superb ergonomics much better in this respect that the previous Leica SLR cameras, also boasting a strong personality.
Front view of the Leica R8 with a Summilux-R 80 mm f/1.4 attached. The viewfinder of this camera (in the same way as with the Leica R9) is a prodigy of clarity and brightness of image, wisely enhanced by the high quality glass prism, the already quoted 17 layers mirror and top-notch Fresnel devices and grinded engravings.
Aerial view of Leica R8 with a Summilux-R 80 mm f/1.4. The profile of the camera is also very spectacular from this angle. Notwithstanding, Leica keeps its loyalty to tradition: only the necessary dials, buttons and selectors and vast majority of important decisions in the hands of the photographer.
The very futuristic design of this camera, which meant a great break in many respects regarding previous Leica SLR models made between 1964 and 1996, is outstanding in this view from top, which also fosters the gorgeous ergonomics of the camera, making up for the big size of the R8 and allowing the use of the best professional great aperture zooms and telephotos in the Leica R assortment.
Front view of a chromed Leica R8
Leica Macro-Adapter-R, a very useful and versatile fixture which adds even further enlargement capabilities to the very high quality Leica R macro lenses.
Once more, the quality of the mechanizing and finish of the metal and the thoroughness in the joints is highly painstaking.
It enables to increase 30 mm the length of a lens, but at the same time managing to meter at full aperture, keeping the automatic diaphragm working. This way, both manual mode and aperture priority can be chosen.
This incredible technological tour de force constitutes a superb quality optical system by itself acting as an alternative to the conventional long focal lengths.
And the most impressive thing is that in spite of using two superposed glasses (the one of each lens head and the one of each focus module) the image quality obtained is tremendous, and there´s only a very slight loss of contrast in the shortest distances.
This is a great optical feat by Leica.
Apo-Macro-Elmarit-R 100 mm f/2.8 connected to the special ELPRO 1:2-1:1 attachment which allows it to reach a 1,1:1 reproduction ratio.
Elmarit-R 180 mm f/2.8, made between 1980 and 1998. A very compact lens bearing in mind its focal length and maximum aperture. It was designed and optimized for its handheld use. It features 5 elements in 4 groups and a weight of 810 g.
A lens delivering superb image quality. Its optical performance approaches to the level of the truly apochromatic great aperture medium teleobjectives made by Leica, but reducing to the utmost both the bulk and weight of the lens, and offering a very difficult to beat price/quality ratio.
On the other hand, it sports a top-notch built-in hood fairly useful in harshly backlighted photographic environments and generally speaking to fully assure the avoidance of flare, though truth is that the high quality antireflection coatings featured by the elements of Leica R lenses are so good that they minimize this problem in a lot of cases (something similar happens with the superb Fujinon EBC 60 mm f/4 of the 6 x 4.5 medium format Fuji GA 645 AF, which has proved to have a tremendous resistance to flare with the hood out). Besides, its vignetting at full aperture is low: 0.9 diaphragm.
Remarkable the fact that this lens replaced the first version of Elmarit-R 180 mm f/2.8 made between 1968 and 1979, which was excessively stout (1325 g) and featured 5 elements, two of them being cemented to constitute a pair.
It rendered very good image quality but was cumbersome to use because of its great dimensions and weight till it was substituted by the second version shown in the photograph which has an improved optical formula sporting ED glasses and weighs 605 g less.
Its minimum focusing distance is 1,80 m, being a stellar performer for portraits taken from a certain distance, disturbing the subject as less as possible or in contexts where is not feasible to approach more to the photographed person.
Likewise, it is excellent to make landscapes pictures in which only small details are chosen to set up the final image.
When Apo-Extender 1,4x is attached to this lens, it becomes a still high quality Leica 250 mm f/4 lens, because the Leica R extenders are so good that image loss is very little, particularly with the Apo-Extender 1,4x.
A lens with very interesting quality of image/price ratio. ROM contacts can be added by Leica.
Apo-Elmarit-R 180 mm f/2.8 ROM, another of the current super top performers in the Leica R array of lenses. It was introduced in 1998 and features 7 elements in 5 groups along with a weight of 970 g.
The optical performance of this truly apochromatic lens is extraordinary already at full aperture and hardly improves on stopping down.
It beats in image quality the excellent previous Elmarit 180 mm f/2.8 2nd version which he replaced, also bettering it with a new minimum focusing distance of 1,50 m.
Tremendous ability capturing even the most minute details of the subjects with great crispness and clarity, complemented with a superb rendering of contrast. And everything at full aperture f/2.8 for which this monster of optical performance was designed.
In this tour de force design aberrations like coma, vignetting, astigmatism and field curvature have been reduced to negligible levels in practical situations, being remarkably compact and elegant if we bear in mind its focal length and very favourable maximum aperture, which makes it a highly suitable photographic tool for handheld shots.
It excels in such diverse photographic domains as landscape, fashion, sports, portraiture, etc, also being remarkable in the silky smoothness of its advanced internal focusing gear.
This is one of the the most representative R lenses regarding the very little improvement achieved when stopping it down, a great optical feat which allows the attainment of top quality in almost every conceivable photographic picture taking context and on the whole image surface, from center to extreme corners, both in the longest and shortest focusing distances.
A full-fledged super stellar performer in association with a good monopod or tripod.
On the other hand, this lens gets also high marks in the bokeh department, attaining very good blurred areas which strongly foster the global aesthetic beauty of image at full aperture, where falloff values are low: 0.68 diaphragm.
Apo-Telyt-R 180 mm f/3.4 ROM, one of the most famous lenses designed by Walter Mandler at Leitz Factory in Midlands (Ontario). Thirty three years have elapsed since it was launched into market in 1975, and incredibly it is now in 2008, together with the Apo-Summicron-R 180 mm f/2 the best 180 mm lens in the world for full format reflex cameras.
It features 7 elements in 4 groups ( six of them cemented in pairs and several sporting newly developed refractive index
glass) and a built-in lens hood, its minimum focusing distance being 2,50 m. It weights only 750 g, therefore being highly suitable for handheld shooting.
This lens delivers a supreme imaging performance even at full aperture, with tremendously high levels of sharpness, detail rendition and brilliance, something out of the reach of the immense majority of telephoto lenses.
The rationale of it is a new optical glass developed in Leica´s own glass research laboratory. The apochromatic correction of this superstellar lens is so impressive that no focusing correction is needed in the infrared range.
But in the Apo-Telyt-R 180 mm f/3.4 the truly apochromatic correction doesn´t limit to the three primary colours of the visible spectrum, but it also extends beyond it, going into the infrared domain.
Id est, this very famous lens is one of the legendary Leica R optical designs made for military use, and the full aperture image quality delivered by this lens is very outstanding and interesting to know, because Mandler optimized it for handheld use at maximum shutter speeds feasible rendering top sharpness both in the center and extreme corners of the image surface together with extremely flat field.
This out of parameters lens hardly improves its optical performance after being stopped down. Mandler put all of his soul in this design, optimising it to get incredible fidelity in the drawing of the edges and contours of the outlines of the photographed subjects, stressing them
with respect to the out of focus areas.
On the other hand, the power of resolution and contrast achieved by this famous lens must be seen to be believed, and always on both the center, borders and extreme corners of the image surface, even at f/3.4.
Besides, distortion is negligible to practical effects and vignetting values at full aperture are around 0.8 diaphragm. It is very important to take into account that firstly, Walter Mandler originally designed it as an Elcan R Lens for the US Navy at early 70s to create a brutal quality of image performer intended for surveillance photography, and a few years later, in 1975, because of a number of different reasons, what in principle should have been a sort of secret military super high performance prototype lens in the boundary of scientific knowledge, was launched into photographic market after having been designed to approach the theoretical limits of resolution at infinitiy at the largest apertures.
It was the first truly Apochromatic lens introduced by Leica and one of the selected club of Leitz Canada ´extended spectral range´ teleobjectives.
The sharpness of this lens is more than legendary, particularly with subjects or themes located at intermediate and specially long distances (at the nearest focusing distances between 2,5 and 3,5 m image quality is very good but not stellar) for which Mandler optimised the optical performance of this jewel, which reaches its maximum performance at f/4 and f/5.6, because though at f/3.4 the image quality is already spectacular, Mandler intentionally didn´t correct all the aberrations to the utmost trying to optimise the design for full aperture, because he wanted to get one of his mythical aesthetic type of images for which the introduction of a bit degree of residual aberrations was necessary.
This lens has proved to develop an extraordinary synergy with all kind of digital sensors, getting fantastic results, even at full aperture, also featuring an impressive resistance to flare with backlighted subjects.
On the other hand, it delivers great smoothness in colour tones and remarkable chromatic accuracy. Its compactness becomes it a very top-notch all-around performer whose image quality is on a par with the best Leica-R most up-to-date truly apochromatic telephoto lenses currently in production, epitomizing very well the great quantity of Leica R lenses delivering excellent image quality in association with all kind of digital sensors from 4/3 to full frame.
Even with the Apo-Extender 2x attached, the Apo-Telyt-R 180 mm f/3.4 attains a very good image quality. It was produced between 1975 and 1998 and can be found in the second market in very good or even mint condition, which is not a hindrance of any kind, cause Leica R lenses are designed and made to work perfectly after a lot of decades of hard use and components and spare parts are available for each model of camera and lens.
Telyt-R 250 mm f/4 2nd version, produced between 1980 and 1994. Designed by Walter Mandler in Midlands (Ontario), once more with parameters of minimizing production cost, struggling at the same time to obtain maximum feasible optical performance under those premises.
It´s sharp wide open at f/4 and well balanced. Evidently, it doesn´t reach the superlative level of image quality of the most modern Apo teleobjectives or their very subtle colour hues separation, but anyway, it is a very good performer even to current standards.
This lens can´t be used attached to the APO-Extender 1,4x because of the protruding lens element featured by the converter.
Vignetting at full aperture is around 0.65 diaphragm. Its near focusing distance is 1,7 m and sports a very useful built-in tripod bush. A lens boasting a very difficult to beat price/image quality performance.
It renders a very uniform resolution in the whole range of focusing distances, its optimum performance being at f/5.6.
Optical scheme optimised for rendering its best at the center of the image surface.
This lens has been successfully used attached to full frame Canon EOS 5D by means of the superb Stephen Gandi Leica R to EOS adapter, getting very good results. ROM contacts can be added by Leica.
PA Curtagon 35 mm f/4, a special lens produced by Schneider-Kreuznach for Leica R mount cameras. It was introduced in 1969, almost 40 years ago, but it doesn´t matter at all. The image quality rendered by this PC lens is superb.
It allows a 7 mm displacement of the optical axis, bringing about a degree of rising or swing front for correction of converging verticals.
On the other hand, the control of the displacement is attained through a notched ring engraved 0 to 7.
This lens featuring a high optical performance is used manually, since its design precludes to equip it with an automatic diaphragm. Its angle of view ranges between 63º and 78º.
A superb performer specially in architecture photography, featuring a very good quality of image/price ratio.
Leica R62, a fully mechanical manual focusing SLR masterpiece, featuring the highest manufacturing quality in all of its components, an utterly metallic body, a sturdy wholly high precision mechanical shutter (metal bladed, vertical travel, focal plane type) non depending on batteries and offering a tremendous endurance under the harshest climate conditions.
A purely photographic tool able to successfully accomplish a wide range of works. Classicism, elegance, impressive sturdiness, ergonomics and comfortable control elements, with a weight of 625 g.
A purely photographic tool able to successfully accomplish a wide range of works. Classicism, elegance, impressive sturdiness, ergonomics and comfortable control elements, with a weight of 625 g.
Transversal section of the Leica R62, a great SLR camera made between 1992 and 1997 and conceived in order that the photographer can take all the important decisions, allowing him to implement his own creative ideas, without any kind of restrictions imposed by automatic exposure controls.Its highly accurate mechanical shutter guarantees repeatable and evenly exact shutter speeds, even under extreme environments.
Its pentaprism is made with impressive thoroughness and coated with pure silver, while the semitransparent tilting mirror features 17 layers inside a vacuum chamber. The result is absolutely amazing: an extraordinary image through the viewfinder: tremendously clear, luminous and contrasty, even under scarce ambient light photographic contexts.
Id est, the Leica R62 is almost on a par with the out of this world viewfinders of manual focusing Olympus OM-1, manual focusing OM-2, and manual focusing Leica R8 and Leica R9. On the other hand, apart from a very useful mirror lock-up function to avoid all kind of vibrations, the Leica R62 also boasts a rather comprehensive TTL metering system, whose epicentre is a silicon photodiode in the bottom of mirror box, which receives light reflected from a special reflector located behind the mirror, and consisting of 1345 micro reflectors in a Fresnel pattern.
There are three possible metering choices: a) Center Weighted Average mode by reflecting light directly to photo cell (reading from the entire image area); b) Spot Mode with a concentrating lens moving in front of the photo cell (reading from a 7 mm central area whose angle changes depending on the lens in use but is always visible as a circle in the viewfinder).
This is a very important metering system when the photographer has to face difficult light conditions and so is compelled to select a part of the theme which is the most important for the correct exposure and will determine its values; c) Flash Exposure Metering, enabling accurate adjustments at any focal length, having particularly proved its efficiency with the superb Metz flashes ( through SCA 300 or 500) which deliver a wonderful quality of light.
Elmarit-R 19 mm f/2.8 ROM, a top class super wide-angle and currently the best lens in the world in the 18-21 mm scope for a SLR full frame camera. It features 12 elements in 10 groups, a floating element, a weight of 560 g and a focusing range from 0.3 m to infinity.Launched into market in 1990, this lens has been and goes on being now in 2008 the world monarch in its focal length in terms of brutal image quality and incredible lack of distortion, being utterly rectilinear to practical effects, in such a degree that photographs taken with this incredible lens show outstanding impact and dramatic effect in such photographic genres as fashion, architecture, landscape, etc, but always with the proportions appearing quite natural, a tremendous optical feat by Leica, bearing in mind that this tour de force lens features an extreme focal length.
Thanks to its f/2.8 high speed, it´s also very suitable for candid photography and photojournalism. It includes a built-in filter turret with a x1 ND filter, yellow/green, orange and blue conversion filter for artificial light on daylight film.
Its compactness and low weight are remarkable, along with the exceptional sharpness and the ability to reproduce straight lines without a trace of distortion it delivers.
This is the made in Germany second version of the Elmarit-R 19 mm f/2.8, which improved the first one launched into market in 1975 and designed by Walter Mandler at the Leitz factory in Midlands (Ontario), which sported a very good image quality but lacked top-notch performance in the close-up distances because it hadn´t a built-in floating element and at the same time it was a prone to flare lens, since the diameter of the front element was very large (82 mm compared with the 72 mm of the second version).
Apart from that, evidently Mandler couldn´ t use the machines and all kind of very up-to-date devices available in late eighties for the design of the second version, and among others, top priority for him was to attain the best feasible curvature field by intentionally introducing some levels of astigmatism and he had to optimize the design for the center of the image.
This way, with Mandler´s first version vignetting usually exceeds 2.5 diaphragm and some distortion appeared both in the corners and the nearest distances.
Rear diagonal view of the Elmarit-R 19 mm f/2.8 ROM. We can see the nine golden contacts for transmission of data to the current manual focusing R8, R9 and very probably the upcoming autofocus R10 digital, though with lenses between 14 mm and 35 mm the lavish depth of field greatly minimizes the need of autofocus.Spectacular the traditional scales of f stops, distances and depth of field engraved on the lens barrel, together with the impressive mechanizing, sturdiness, accuracy and high quality of the metal visible in the Leica R bayonet.
Aerial view of the Elmarit-R 19 mm f/2.8 ROM, once more with the golden ROM contacts and a superb handcrafted mechanizing work. Pay attention to the very thorough way in which the ten screws have been adjusted.Leica has always underlined not only the worldly renowned optical quality of its products, but also the mechanical one. On the other hand, this lens has proved to have great synergy with digital sensors.
Summicron-R 35 mm f/2 ROM. Launched into market in 1976, it goes on being now in 2008, 32 years after its inception, the best lens in the world in its focal length and speed for full frame reflex cameras and almost impossible to beat, rendering a wonderful image quality with great crispness and contrast even at full aperture and a very remarkable elimination of reflexes.Deemed by many experts the most versatile lens with a very beautiful angle of image coverage, wisely complementing the standard 50 mm focal length and the likewise very versatile few lenses featuring 40 m focal length as the mythical Olympus Zuiko 40 mm f/2.
It features six elements in six groups and a weight of 430 g, its focusing range being between 0.30 m and infinite.
This world class lens was designed by Walter Mandler in Midlands (Ontario) and made in Wetzlar (Germany), and is the second version of a saga which began with the first version of Summicron-R 35 mm f/2 featuring 9 elements in 7 groups, slightly more optimized for the corners, launched into market in 1972 and produced until 1976. Great synergy with digital sensors.
And always bearing in mind the current fabulous Leica R mount, with its set of translucid mirrors (17 antireflection layers) and behind it the parabolic secondary mirror for the spot metering.
Vario-Elmar-R 80-200 mm f/4, a high quality zoom with very interesting price/performance ratio. It features 12 elements in 9 groups and a weight of 1020 g. A zoom lens optimized for the range 80-145 mm, rendering very good quality at full aperture f/4 and superb between f/5.6 and f/11. Its vignetting values are around 1 diaphragm, revealing slight pincushion distortion in short and medium focal lengths and a bit stronger in the longest ones.
The image quality this zooms lens is able to deliver matches a good percentage of the best lenses with fixed focal lengths, getting very good resolving power and contrast, and is particularly suitable for hand held shots because of its compactness. Its minimum focusing distance is 1,1 m. Very good symbiosis with digital sensors, specially the ones featuring great image quality at high sensitivity between 800 and 2000.
Lying view of the Vario-Elmar-R 80-200 mm f/4 ROM, currently in 2008 the world reference for full frame reflex cameras in its range of focal lengths and constant f/4 diaphragm, also featuring a very interesting price.The great photographs made in Costa Rica by David Young of hummingbirds, cactus flowers and birds on the Sarapiquí River with a Canon 20D attached through adapter to a Vario-Elmar-R 80-200 mm f/4 ROM have very clearly proved the impressive optical performance of this lens, rendering a superb image quality in association with a good digital sensor (something which also happens with a high percentage of manual focusing Leica R lenses).
If the upcoming Leica R10 autofocus is able to render very good image quality at high sensitivities between iso 1000 and 2000, this very top-notch zoom could be a tremendous weapon in the hands of experienced pros and connoisseurs in contexts where they have time to think, focus manually and working stopping down, searching for maximum quality with the added benefit of a highly exciting kind of harking back to the future.
On the left of the image the nine golden ROM contacts for transmission of data between lens and camera can be seen, apart from the painstaking finishing of both mechanizing of the Leica R mount and the slightly scalloped zooming and focusing rings.
Apo-Summicron-R 180 mm f/2, a monster of image quality and mechanical manufacture. Launched into market in 1994, this lens is currently in 2008, fourteen years after its introduction, very clearly the best in the world in its focal length and aperture. It features 9 elements in 6 groups and a weight of 2,500 kg with a plain protection filter permanently fixed in front of the forward element. Internal focusing down to 1.5 m preserves balance, keeping the length of the lens constant. It also sports a built-in high quality and extensible hood, which is reinforced by means of rubber.
This true apochromatic ´Rolls-Royce´ telephoto lens, another one optical tour de force made by Leica, renders a superb image performance throughout the whole frame, from the center to the extreme corners, getting a tremendous quality of image at maximum f/2 full aperture, with top resolution, impressive hue separation and high contrast, improving very little on stopping it down, however incredible it may seem.
There isn´t any trace of field curvature, astigmatism and coma either, and the internal focusing enables the length to be the same, firm to handhold and comfortable to use. However, the best results will be obtained with a tripod or monopod.
Its focusing range goes from 1.5 m to infinity. It also excels reproducing colours with an amazing accuracy and delicate nuances.
Tremendous association with high quality digital sensors, setting differences at full aperture, which allows the photographer to achieve top quality from low isos and very beautiful bokehs out of the reach of most lenses featuring this focal length.
For instance, its aptitude for portraits with out of focus backgrounds both outdoors and indoors in studio work and the absolutely plentiful level of detail captured in the subjects is so great that it approaches in this respect the one boasted by specialized lenses for 4 x 5 ´ large format cameras, and always with the added bonus of top-notch contrast in both center and extreme corners of the image surface and wonderful transition curve from blurred zones to in focus areas.
Spectacular lateral view of the Apo-Summicron-R 180 mm f/2, a lens boasting an showy appearance and a brutal optical feat by Leica, since at f/2 it slightly beats the performance of Walter Mandler´s great Apo-Telyt-R 180 mm f/3.4 at f/3.4, which in its turn is nowadays one of the best lenses for SLR full frame cameras in the world, albeit it was launched into market in 1975.The ability of the Apo-Summicron-R 180 mm f/2 to capture even the most concealed details under dimly illuminated photographic contexts (specially in theatre stages, all kind of concerts, etc) at full aperture f/2 can only be defined as formidable, also being a very suitable tool for sports, photography of wild animals, glamour contests, natural locations at dawn and twilight and so forth.
The sharpness and definition attained are incredible, often being able to reproduce details not visible for a human being, even from long distances, and wiping out stray light with all kind of subjects.
Apo-Summicron-R 180 mm f/2 with its hood fully extended. Another remarkable trait of this lens is that it renders the same wondrous image quality both at infinity and the nearest distances.On the other hand, this is one of the Leica lenses that better epitomizes how the German firm strives after achieving very sharp outlines of the photographic themes, which is considered something of paramount importance for the global image quality.
Besides, this lens has proved to preserve a tremendous image quality with the Apo-Extender R 1,4 x attached ( becoming a 252 mm f/2.8) and very good performance with the Apo-Extender-R 2x (becoming a 360 mm f/4), with the manifold advantages it has.
Telyt-R 350 mm f/4.8, launched into market in 1980 and produced until 1994. It features 7 elements in 5 groups and a weight of 1820 g. A fairly useful long telephoto lens delivering very good image quality at full aperture and superb from f/5.6 on.This lens is rermarkable because of its very interesting price/quality ratio in the second hand market where it can be often found in A/B or nearly mint condition, and was firstly tested with outstanding results during the 1980 Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid (USA).
It sports a fully automatic diaphragm and a reinforced rubberised focusing ring, together with a built-in lens hood and tripod bush. The focusing distance encompasses from 3 meters to infinite.
Evidently, this lens doesn´t render a superlative image quality on a par with the most up-to-date truly apochromatic and aspherical designs made by Leica from nineties, but residual chromatic aberrations have been minimized to negligible levels in practical situations and it becomes this impressive lens into a very valuable tool able to give utter professional image quality with very contained bulk, volume and weight, bearing in mind its very long focal length.
You can even attach it the Extender-R 1,4 x getting good quality, though attaching it the Extender-R 2x converter is not recommended with this lens.
Good fine detail reproduction and contrast, particularly in the image center which makes it very suitable for DSLR APS-C digital sensors.
It´s very important to bear in mind that this Telyt 350 mm f/4.8 designed by Walter Mandler in Midlands (Ontario) epitomizes very well the achieved goal of creating a top-notch image quality long telephoto performer featuring a moderate full aperture and reducing production costs as much as possible with a favourable market price, but able at the same time to produce pro imagery, since the optical Mozart with limited budgets optimised the sharpness of the contours of subjects, knowing that it was impossible to have good definition of the corners of the image surface at full aperture under those incredible parameters of fostering top possible image quality with minimum investment which he fixed in advance.
A lens rendering very sharp images both in association with full frame digital sensors and APS-C digital ones. It can be upgraded with ROM golden contacts by Leica.
Macro-Elmarit-R 60 mm f/2.8 ROM, a very versatile and high quality lens, very suitable for landscape photography and portraits. It gets a reproduction ratio of 1:2, reaching 1:1 with the Macro-Adapter-R attached . Its optical formula includes 6 elements in 5 groups, with a weight of 400 g.It renders an impressive image quality, excelling in photography with available light, thanks to its great f/2 aperture. Besides, it boasts a Numantine resistance to flare and captures superbly the subtle tonal differences, both in light and shaded zones, even in contexts with high degrees of contrast. Its subtle focusing range goes from 27 cm to infinite.
It was launched into market in 1972, and in spite of the 36 years elapsed, it is now in 2008 one of the best lenses for full format in the world, achieving a tremendous optical performance on the whole surface of the image, even at full aperture, though reaching its best around f/4.
This lens exhibits a very remarkable ability to capture even the most minute details from centre to borders and distortion is very low, negligible to practical effects.
A top performer which endures very well the comparison with the Apo-Macro-Elmarit 100 mm f/2.8 and the Summicron-R 50mm f/2 (two of the most high quality lenses in the Leica R line-up), attaining very high definition, crispness and contrast.
Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 Aspherical ( very compact, with 11 elements in 8 groups and 740 g, a superb all around zoom that can handle a wide array of photographic situations rendering impressive image quality even at full aperture); the Vario-Apo-Elmarit-R 70-180 mm f/2.8 in its two versions (the 1995-1998 and with ROM contacts from 1998); the Vario-Elmar-R 105-280 mm f/4.2 from 1996; the incredible zoom Vario-Elmar-R 21-35 mm f/3.5-4 (the best wideangle zoom for 35 mm standard in history, boasting a tremendously low level of distortion and suitable for indoor architecture.
Elmarit-R 135 mm f/2.8, a very compact medium telephoto lens rendering excellent resolution and high contrast at full aperture. It features 5 elements in 4 groups and a weight of 730 g.Very suitable for handheld shots, specially portraits becoming the subject the epicentre of the photograph with the background blurred and smooth transition from in focus to out of focus areas, with the added effect of compressing the foreground and background together, which changes the impression of space. Its distortion levels are very low, almost non existent to practical effects.
This is another very interesting lens designed by Walter Mandler in Midlands (Ontario) and introduced in 1968 (with a new optical formula, convex rear element and triple cam, replacing the early models sporting a concave rear element and single cam), that´s to say, 40 years ago. But incredibly, this lens goes on being now in 2008 a very good performer under current standards.
Though not a super sharp performer, it delivers a wonderful image quality with great aesthetic properties. The wizardry of Mandler is very present in this optical design able to get a wide variety of blues typical in Leica when shooting under the shadow and rich enough colour tonalities when photographing at dawn with the first sun rays.
Intentionally, Walter Mandler optimised the lens resolution and contrast from f/4 on, but did keep some degree of aberrations for full aperture f/2.8, knowing in advance that many people would use the lens for making portraits, so priorities for him were great aesthetic beauty of image and certain levels of vintage softness in the reproduction of faces together with a smooth transition between depth of field of blurred areas, following in this regard the premises of the classical large format portraiture of the two first decades of Twentieth Century to conceal as much as possible defects on the skin of the photographed people. ROM contacts can be attached by Leica.
A lens with very interesting price/quality/distinctive type of image ratio.
Leica R8, a formidable SLR camera, introduced in the 1996 Photokina Köln. Designed by Manfred Meinzer, with this state-of-the-art and very up-to-date model, Leica made a quantum leap in the reflex cameras domain and offered a great photographic tool offering an incredibly wide range of different possibilities on shooting which made it the most advanced and complete SLR camera in the world, in spite of being still a manual focusing masterpiece.Among its main features, we must highlight an utterly metallic manufacture, shutter speeds between 32 sec and 1/8000 sec (in automatic modes) and between 16 sec and 1/8000 (in manual adjustments), a Copal vertically running metal leaf focal plane shutter, mirror lock-up, maximum flash synchronization speed of 1/250, a very comprehensive and refined TTL flash metering, both previous to the shots and during them, choice of flash sync to the first or second curtain, integral motorizing through either the Winder R8 or the Motor R8, a semitransparent mirror featuring a 17 layers multicoating and another Fresnel mirror inside which resends the light to the metering system (this was already built-in in the Leica R6 and R62), etc.
Cutaway of the Leica R8 with Summilux-R 50 mm f/1.4 revealing the profusion of high level electronics it sports, in spite of being a manual focusing camera.Indeed, a high percentage of the many different functions of the camera are controlled by a powerful microprocessor. Really impressive the configuration of the main dials, buttons and selectors deeply incrusted in the camera body to make them as much unobtrusive as possible to the photographer.
We can also see (specially on the left of the image) the top-notch and elaborate mechanical components of the camera, made with the best and most noble metals available, and assembled with incredibly narrow tolerances, allowing for a tremendous working accuracy.
Leica fulfils a kind of ´Rolls-Royce´ mechanic engineering inside the R8, with plenty of gear wheels, flywheels, very hard and flexible springs, top quality ball bearings, etc, which are handcraftedly tested by Leica, unit by unit (under the most severe climate conditions and constant changes in extreme temperatures) before inserting everything inside the body of the camera.
On the other hand, the beauty of lines of the Leica R8 (in the same way as the R9) is absolutely wonderful, a marvel of creativity and good taste, and featuring a superb ergonomics much better in this respect that the previous Leica SLR cameras, also boasting a strong personality.
Front view of the Leica R8 with a Summilux-R 80 mm f/1.4 attached. The viewfinder of this camera (in the same way as with the Leica R9) is a prodigy of clarity and brightness of image, wisely enhanced by the high quality glass prism, the already quoted 17 layers mirror and top-notch Fresnel devices and grinded engravings.
Aerial view of Leica R8 with a Summilux-R 80 mm f/1.4. The profile of the camera is also very spectacular from this angle. Notwithstanding, Leica keeps its loyalty to tradition: only the necessary dials, buttons and selectors and vast majority of important decisions in the hands of the photographer.The very futuristic design of this camera, which meant a great break in many respects regarding previous Leica SLR models made between 1964 and 1996, is outstanding in this view from top, which also fosters the gorgeous ergonomics of the camera, making up for the big size of the R8 and allowing the use of the best professional great aperture zooms and telephotos in the Leica R assortment.
Front view of a chromed Leica R8The Leica R Line also boasts the very useful and top-notch quality Apo-Telyt R Module, an exotic and original system specially useful for sports and nature photographers who don´t want to buy and carry individual very heavy high luminosity long focal teleobjectives from different long focal lengths from 280 mm on, which is attained by means of two lens heads and three focusing units setting up six different Apo lenses between 280 mm and 800 mm with tremendous optical quality and featuring very short close focusing distances.
Identical to the one featured by the following Leica R9, the Leica R8 lock-up function guarantees a vibration free photography, specially useful when using the wide range of Leica f/2 and f/2.8 medium and long focal length teleobjectives and professional f/2.8 zooms, together with some stratospheric lenses as for instance the Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/4 or any of the six superteles between 280 mm and 800 mm belonging to the Leica Apo-Telyt-R Module System, understanding that we´re referring to the camera and lens located on a sturdy tripod, because however good may be the masses balance of any camera, there will always be some levels of vibration specially with the heavy great aperture long lenses and zooms if mirror lock-up isn´t used.
Exactly in the same way as with the Leica R9, when the R8 lever is set to the clearly marked position, the real shutter release only takes place when the release button is put into action again.
Elmarit-R 90 mm f/2.8, an incredibly compact lens taking into account its focal length and maximum aperture. It features 4 elements in 4 groups and a weight of 450 g.
Launched into market in 1984, this is the second version of the Elmarit-R 90 mm f/2.8 made between 1964 and 1983 and designed by Walter Mandler in Midlands (Ontario) which used 5 elements in its optical formula (being now in 2008 a very good contender featuring remarkable sharpness, good definition from center to borders of the image surface and outstanding ability for the capturing of details).
This way, the second version of this lens appearing in the photograph was made in Wetzlar (Germany) from 1984 with a reformulated design of 4 elements, outperforming the quoted first version at full aperture along with a more uniform high level performance both in the nearest distances and in infinity, together with an improved flare wiping out.
A very handholdable lens, rendering edge to edge sharpness and producing a nice bokeh. ROM contacts can be attached by Leica.
Apo-Macro-Elmarit-R 100 mm f/2.8 ROM, an authentic ´ Rolls-Royce ´ of optical performance. It is currently in 2008 the best lens in the world in its focal length and maximum f/2.8 aperture.
The frequent referent from which the rest or lenses are evaluated. It features 8 elements in 6 Groups and a weight of 760 g. It renders an exceptional image quality from its minimum focusing distance of 45 cm to infinite, on the whole picture area, even at full aperture, thanks to its true apochromatic correction.
Tremendous ability to capture fine details with superb accuracy and brightness of colours, along with impressive definition and sharpness.
On the other hand, it is a stellar performer delicately reproducing the different nuances of tones.
Its distortion is non existent and vignetting values are rather small: 0.8 diaphragm. At 0.45 m, the reproduction ratio is 1:2
Attached to the APO-EXTENDER-R 2x, it becomes an Apochromatic 200 mm f/5.6 preserving a very good image quality and focusing steadily from infinite to a lifesize reproduction ratio of 1:1.
A wonderful lens for portraits and many photographic genres in which great level and quality of details is required.
Twenty one years after its introduction into the market in 1987, this truly apochromatic lens goes on being a world class performer which has proved to have an extraordinary synergy with all kind of digital sensors, producing amazing results.
Macro-Elmar-R 100 mm f/4. Though not stellar, it is a very good lens rendering very sharp image quality, and zero values of distortion and falloff at f/4.
Incredibly, thirty years have elapsed since it was introduced in 1978, but now in 2008, it´s still a macro photographic tool able to produce top-notch results under current standards.
Not in vain, it is a very classical design, but boasting a very accurate correction of aberrations, mainly field curvature and astigmatism.
Though evidently the minute details are not so well reproduced as with the most up-to-date Leica R lenses, the Macro-Elmar-R 100 mm f/4 bears a very distinctive Leica hallmark, getting very sharp contours and edges of the subjects and all kind of objects and surrounding things.
Besides, the Macro-Adapter-R can be attached to it, attaining a reproduction ratio of 1:1.6.
A lens with a very interesting quality of image/price ratio. ROM contacts can be attached by Leica.
Identical to the one featured by the following Leica R9, the Leica R8 lock-up function guarantees a vibration free photography, specially useful when using the wide range of Leica f/2 and f/2.8 medium and long focal length teleobjectives and professional f/2.8 zooms, together with some stratospheric lenses as for instance the Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/4 or any of the six superteles between 280 mm and 800 mm belonging to the Leica Apo-Telyt-R Module System, understanding that we´re referring to the camera and lens located on a sturdy tripod, because however good may be the masses balance of any camera, there will always be some levels of vibration specially with the heavy great aperture long lenses and zooms if mirror lock-up isn´t used.
Exactly in the same way as with the Leica R9, when the R8 lever is set to the clearly marked position, the real shutter release only takes place when the release button is put into action again.
Elmarit-R 90 mm f/2.8, an incredibly compact lens taking into account its focal length and maximum aperture. It features 4 elements in 4 groups and a weight of 450 g.
Launched into market in 1984, this is the second version of the Elmarit-R 90 mm f/2.8 made between 1964 and 1983 and designed by Walter Mandler in Midlands (Ontario) which used 5 elements in its optical formula (being now in 2008 a very good contender featuring remarkable sharpness, good definition from center to borders of the image surface and outstanding ability for the capturing of details).
This way, the second version of this lens appearing in the photograph was made in Wetzlar (Germany) from 1984 with a reformulated design of 4 elements, outperforming the quoted first version at full aperture along with a more uniform high level performance both in the nearest distances and in infinity, together with an improved flare wiping out.
A very handholdable lens, rendering edge to edge sharpness and producing a nice bokeh. ROM contacts can be attached by Leica.
Apo-Macro-Elmarit-R 100 mm f/2.8 ROM, an authentic ´ Rolls-Royce ´ of optical performance. It is currently in 2008 the best lens in the world in its focal length and maximum f/2.8 aperture.
The frequent referent from which the rest or lenses are evaluated. It features 8 elements in 6 Groups and a weight of 760 g. It renders an exceptional image quality from its minimum focusing distance of 45 cm to infinite, on the whole picture area, even at full aperture, thanks to its true apochromatic correction.
Tremendous ability to capture fine details with superb accuracy and brightness of colours, along with impressive definition and sharpness.
On the other hand, it is a stellar performer delicately reproducing the different nuances of tones.
Its distortion is non existent and vignetting values are rather small: 0.8 diaphragm. At 0.45 m, the reproduction ratio is 1:2
Attached to the APO-EXTENDER-R 2x, it becomes an Apochromatic 200 mm f/5.6 preserving a very good image quality and focusing steadily from infinite to a lifesize reproduction ratio of 1:1.
A wonderful lens for portraits and many photographic genres in which great level and quality of details is required.
Twenty one years after its introduction into the market in 1987, this truly apochromatic lens goes on being a world class performer which has proved to have an extraordinary synergy with all kind of digital sensors, producing amazing results.
Macro-Elmar-R 100 mm f/4. Though not stellar, it is a very good lens rendering very sharp image quality, and zero values of distortion and falloff at f/4.
Incredibly, thirty years have elapsed since it was introduced in 1978, but now in 2008, it´s still a macro photographic tool able to produce top-notch results under current standards.
Not in vain, it is a very classical design, but boasting a very accurate correction of aberrations, mainly field curvature and astigmatism.
Though evidently the minute details are not so well reproduced as with the most up-to-date Leica R lenses, the Macro-Elmar-R 100 mm f/4 bears a very distinctive Leica hallmark, getting very sharp contours and edges of the subjects and all kind of objects and surrounding things.
Besides, the Macro-Adapter-R can be attached to it, attaining a reproduction ratio of 1:1.6.
A lens with a very interesting quality of image/price ratio. ROM contacts can be attached by Leica.
Leica Macro-Adapter-R, a very useful and versatile fixture which adds even further enlargement capabilities to the very high quality Leica R macro lenses.
Once more, the quality of the mechanizing and finish of the metal and the thoroughness in the joints is highly painstaking.
It enables to increase 30 mm the length of a lens, but at the same time managing to meter at full aperture, keeping the automatic diaphragm working. This way, both manual mode and aperture priority can be chosen.
This incredible technological tour de force constitutes a superb quality optical system by itself acting as an alternative to the conventional long focal lengths.
And the most impressive thing is that in spite of using two superposed glasses (the one of each lens head and the one of each focus module) the image quality obtained is tremendous, and there´s only a very slight loss of contrast in the shortest distances.
This is a great optical feat by Leica.
Apo-Macro-Elmarit-R 100 mm f/2.8 connected to the special ELPRO 1:2-1:1 attachment which allows it to reach a 1,1:1 reproduction ratio.
Elmarit-R 180 mm f/2.8, made between 1980 and 1998. A very compact lens bearing in mind its focal length and maximum aperture. It was designed and optimized for its handheld use. It features 5 elements in 4 groups and a weight of 810 g.A lens delivering superb image quality. Its optical performance approaches to the level of the truly apochromatic great aperture medium teleobjectives made by Leica, but reducing to the utmost both the bulk and weight of the lens, and offering a very difficult to beat price/quality ratio.
On the other hand, it sports a top-notch built-in hood fairly useful in harshly backlighted photographic environments and generally speaking to fully assure the avoidance of flare, though truth is that the high quality antireflection coatings featured by the elements of Leica R lenses are so good that they minimize this problem in a lot of cases (something similar happens with the superb Fujinon EBC 60 mm f/4 of the 6 x 4.5 medium format Fuji GA 645 AF, which has proved to have a tremendous resistance to flare with the hood out). Besides, its vignetting at full aperture is low: 0.9 diaphragm.
Remarkable the fact that this lens replaced the first version of Elmarit-R 180 mm f/2.8 made between 1968 and 1979, which was excessively stout (1325 g) and featured 5 elements, two of them being cemented to constitute a pair.
It rendered very good image quality but was cumbersome to use because of its great dimensions and weight till it was substituted by the second version shown in the photograph which has an improved optical formula sporting ED glasses and weighs 605 g less.
Its minimum focusing distance is 1,80 m, being a stellar performer for portraits taken from a certain distance, disturbing the subject as less as possible or in contexts where is not feasible to approach more to the photographed person.
Likewise, it is excellent to make landscapes pictures in which only small details are chosen to set up the final image.
When Apo-Extender 1,4x is attached to this lens, it becomes a still high quality Leica 250 mm f/4 lens, because the Leica R extenders are so good that image loss is very little, particularly with the Apo-Extender 1,4x.
A lens with very interesting quality of image/price ratio. ROM contacts can be added by Leica.
Apo-Elmarit-R 180 mm f/2.8 ROM, another of the current super top performers in the Leica R array of lenses. It was introduced in 1998 and features 7 elements in 5 groups along with a weight of 970 g.The optical performance of this truly apochromatic lens is extraordinary already at full aperture and hardly improves on stopping down.
It beats in image quality the excellent previous Elmarit 180 mm f/2.8 2nd version which he replaced, also bettering it with a new minimum focusing distance of 1,50 m.
Tremendous ability capturing even the most minute details of the subjects with great crispness and clarity, complemented with a superb rendering of contrast. And everything at full aperture f/2.8 for which this monster of optical performance was designed.
In this tour de force design aberrations like coma, vignetting, astigmatism and field curvature have been reduced to negligible levels in practical situations, being remarkably compact and elegant if we bear in mind its focal length and very favourable maximum aperture, which makes it a highly suitable photographic tool for handheld shots.
It excels in such diverse photographic domains as landscape, fashion, sports, portraiture, etc, also being remarkable in the silky smoothness of its advanced internal focusing gear.
This is one of the the most representative R lenses regarding the very little improvement achieved when stopping it down, a great optical feat which allows the attainment of top quality in almost every conceivable photographic picture taking context and on the whole image surface, from center to extreme corners, both in the longest and shortest focusing distances.
A full-fledged super stellar performer in association with a good monopod or tripod.
On the other hand, this lens gets also high marks in the bokeh department, attaining very good blurred areas which strongly foster the global aesthetic beauty of image at full aperture, where falloff values are low: 0.68 diaphragm.
Apo-Telyt-R 180 mm f/3.4 ROM, one of the most famous lenses designed by Walter Mandler at Leitz Factory in Midlands (Ontario). Thirty three years have elapsed since it was launched into market in 1975, and incredibly it is now in 2008, together with the Apo-Summicron-R 180 mm f/2 the best 180 mm lens in the world for full format reflex cameras.It features 7 elements in 4 groups ( six of them cemented in pairs and several sporting newly developed refractive index
glass) and a built-in lens hood, its minimum focusing distance being 2,50 m. It weights only 750 g, therefore being highly suitable for handheld shooting.
This lens delivers a supreme imaging performance even at full aperture, with tremendously high levels of sharpness, detail rendition and brilliance, something out of the reach of the immense majority of telephoto lenses.
The rationale of it is a new optical glass developed in Leica´s own glass research laboratory. The apochromatic correction of this superstellar lens is so impressive that no focusing correction is needed in the infrared range.
But in the Apo-Telyt-R 180 mm f/3.4 the truly apochromatic correction doesn´t limit to the three primary colours of the visible spectrum, but it also extends beyond it, going into the infrared domain.
Id est, this very famous lens is one of the legendary Leica R optical designs made for military use, and the full aperture image quality delivered by this lens is very outstanding and interesting to know, because Mandler optimized it for handheld use at maximum shutter speeds feasible rendering top sharpness both in the center and extreme corners of the image surface together with extremely flat field.
This out of parameters lens hardly improves its optical performance after being stopped down. Mandler put all of his soul in this design, optimising it to get incredible fidelity in the drawing of the edges and contours of the outlines of the photographed subjects, stressing them
with respect to the out of focus areas.
On the other hand, the power of resolution and contrast achieved by this famous lens must be seen to be believed, and always on both the center, borders and extreme corners of the image surface, even at f/3.4.
Besides, distortion is negligible to practical effects and vignetting values at full aperture are around 0.8 diaphragm. It is very important to take into account that firstly, Walter Mandler originally designed it as an Elcan R Lens for the US Navy at early 70s to create a brutal quality of image performer intended for surveillance photography, and a few years later, in 1975, because of a number of different reasons, what in principle should have been a sort of secret military super high performance prototype lens in the boundary of scientific knowledge, was launched into photographic market after having been designed to approach the theoretical limits of resolution at infinitiy at the largest apertures.
It was the first truly Apochromatic lens introduced by Leica and one of the selected club of Leitz Canada ´extended spectral range´ teleobjectives.
The sharpness of this lens is more than legendary, particularly with subjects or themes located at intermediate and specially long distances (at the nearest focusing distances between 2,5 and 3,5 m image quality is very good but not stellar) for which Mandler optimised the optical performance of this jewel, which reaches its maximum performance at f/4 and f/5.6, because though at f/3.4 the image quality is already spectacular, Mandler intentionally didn´t correct all the aberrations to the utmost trying to optimise the design for full aperture, because he wanted to get one of his mythical aesthetic type of images for which the introduction of a bit degree of residual aberrations was necessary.
This lens has proved to develop an extraordinary synergy with all kind of digital sensors, getting fantastic results, even at full aperture, also featuring an impressive resistance to flare with backlighted subjects.
On the other hand, it delivers great smoothness in colour tones and remarkable chromatic accuracy. Its compactness becomes it a very top-notch all-around performer whose image quality is on a par with the best Leica-R most up-to-date truly apochromatic telephoto lenses currently in production, epitomizing very well the great quantity of Leica R lenses delivering excellent image quality in association with all kind of digital sensors from 4/3 to full frame.
Even with the Apo-Extender 2x attached, the Apo-Telyt-R 180 mm f/3.4 attains a very good image quality. It was produced between 1975 and 1998 and can be found in the second market in very good or even mint condition, which is not a hindrance of any kind, cause Leica R lenses are designed and made to work perfectly after a lot of decades of hard use and components and spare parts are available for each model of camera and lens.
Telyt-R 250 mm f/4 2nd version, produced between 1980 and 1994. Designed by Walter Mandler in Midlands (Ontario), once more with parameters of minimizing production cost, struggling at the same time to obtain maximum feasible optical performance under those premises.It´s sharp wide open at f/4 and well balanced. Evidently, it doesn´t reach the superlative level of image quality of the most modern Apo teleobjectives or their very subtle colour hues separation, but anyway, it is a very good performer even to current standards.
This lens can´t be used attached to the APO-Extender 1,4x because of the protruding lens element featured by the converter.
Vignetting at full aperture is around 0.65 diaphragm. Its near focusing distance is 1,7 m and sports a very useful built-in tripod bush. A lens boasting a very difficult to beat price/image quality performance.
It renders a very uniform resolution in the whole range of focusing distances, its optimum performance being at f/5.6.
Optical scheme optimised for rendering its best at the center of the image surface.
This lens has been successfully used attached to full frame Canon EOS 5D by means of the superb Stephen Gandi Leica R to EOS adapter, getting very good results. ROM contacts can be added by Leica.
PA Curtagon 35 mm f/4, a special lens produced by Schneider-Kreuznach for Leica R mount cameras. It was introduced in 1969, almost 40 years ago, but it doesn´t matter at all. The image quality rendered by this PC lens is superb.It allows a 7 mm displacement of the optical axis, bringing about a degree of rising or swing front for correction of converging verticals.
On the other hand, the control of the displacement is attained through a notched ring engraved 0 to 7.
This lens featuring a high optical performance is used manually, since its design precludes to equip it with an automatic diaphragm. Its angle of view ranges between 63º and 78º.
A superb performer specially in architecture photography, featuring a very good quality of image/price ratio.
All you need to do is to join an Apo-Telyt-R Lens Head and an appropriate focusing module to obtain the desired focal length between 280 mm and 800 mm to be able to fulfill a particular photographic task. Thanks to a special bayonet and the large locking ring, this can be done quickly and easily. The great advantage of this intelligent system is that you don´t have to carry along many large and heavy individual telephoto lenses. Instead, you simply combine modules as you need them. And you always have available at every moment telephoto lenses with focal lengths from 280 mm to 800 mm.
Inverted view of a PA Curtagon 35 mm f/4 in Leica R mount. We can see the top-notch mechanizing of the metal components and the top-notch material used in the manufacture of this special high quality lens mainly intended for architecture.
PC-Super-Angulon-R 28 mm f/2.8 ROM, currently in 2008 the best perspective control lens in the world in its focal length and maximum aperture. It was launched into market in 1988 and features 12 elements in 10 groups (with a floating element ensuring very high image performance into the 30 cm shortest focusing range), with a weight of 600 g.
This is a super stellar wideangle lens sporting perspective correction which can be shifted in any direction.
Thanks to its 63 mm circle of sharp definition, the optical axis can be displaced up to 11 mm horizontally or vertically and 9, 5 mm diagonally.
On the other hand, its special mount enables rotation in 45º steps to enhance perspective corrections in vertical and horizontal shots.
A wonderful lens to avoid converging verticals, and highly suitable for both architecture and landscape photography, getting besides a top-notch level of detail, textures of materials and great contrast, greatly due to the optimisation of the design for rendering he best feasible curvature of field.
A preset lever allows stopping down the aperture to the preselected diaphragm.
Making use of the perspective control of the perspective control of this lens, you can get everything looking right and still have your subject in the picture.
By shifting the whole optical system out of the axis, the angle of view is changed without having to tilt the camera. The lens has got the typical drawback in this kind of design: a strong vignetting, in this case of around 3.2 diaphragms at full aperture f/2.8.
A world class performer attaining perfectly straight lines from short distances in the typical building and architectural contexts where normal wideangles would obtain annoying converging lines when tilted upwards.
Leica R9, a very well-thought evolution of the already excellent Leica R8 model, something very different to the frequent programmed in advanced obsolescence featured by other professional reflex cameras of different brands all over the world.
Among the new aspects introduced in the R9 with respect to the R8, we must highlight: a top panel made in a special magnesium and aluminum alloy; an automatic fill-in flash usable at full aperture in symbiosis with long exposure times; the matrix metering system sensitivity can be changed in 0.1 EV adjustments; the weight of the camera has been reduced 100 g (weighing now 790 g); the flash power can be manually corrected in program mode up to +- 3 diaphragms in increments of 1/3 stop; a new built-in frame meter on top on the right of the hot shoe; a metering lock feasible with all the automatic modes, both in centreweighted and spot choices; option of high speed flash synchronization up to 1/8000 sec in association with the Metz HSS system; and a new selector of programs wheel featuring a locking device which avoids unexpected changes on transporting or using it.
Also impressive the ergonomics of this camera, which is besides an epitome of reliability under the most extreme climatic conditions.
It was introduced in 2002 and it is very interesting the fact that both the Leica R8 and R9 had inner space reserved for an autofocusing motor which could be added in future.
Back view of the Leica R9, probably the best full frame SLR camera of all time together with the Nikon D3, Canon T90, Pentax LX, Canon EOS 1 V and Nikon F6. Just over the Leica Camera Made in Germany letters, we can see the information panel that in the R9, which unlike the one featured by the R8, now could be illuminated.
Aerial view of the Leica R9, exhibiting its spectacular distribution of dials and selector wheels which boast a great effectiveness in real photographic contexts.
In spite of the remarkable size of the camera, the masses balance is superb, with a very sturdy manufacture damping sounds and operating vibrations to the utmost.
In the same way as happened with the R8 model, Leica has paid top attention to even the most minute details in this great photographic tool, for example the embedding of the main dials, knurled selector wheels and buttons well inside the body to make them as much unobtrusive as possible to the photographer.
Also top-notch the quality and dimensions of the strap lugs.
Things made this way can´t be cheap.
Interesting view from below of the Leica R9, clearly revealing the lower plate suitable to join some types of motorizations, depending on the photographic tasks. Once we attach a motor winder or motor drive, the camera begins to feed from the auxiliary battery inside them.
Inverted view of a PA Curtagon 35 mm f/4 in Leica R mount. We can see the top-notch mechanizing of the metal components and the top-notch material used in the manufacture of this special high quality lens mainly intended for architecture.
PC-Super-Angulon-R 28 mm f/2.8 ROM, currently in 2008 the best perspective control lens in the world in its focal length and maximum aperture. It was launched into market in 1988 and features 12 elements in 10 groups (with a floating element ensuring very high image performance into the 30 cm shortest focusing range), with a weight of 600 g.This is a super stellar wideangle lens sporting perspective correction which can be shifted in any direction.
Thanks to its 63 mm circle of sharp definition, the optical axis can be displaced up to 11 mm horizontally or vertically and 9, 5 mm diagonally.
On the other hand, its special mount enables rotation in 45º steps to enhance perspective corrections in vertical and horizontal shots.
A wonderful lens to avoid converging verticals, and highly suitable for both architecture and landscape photography, getting besides a top-notch level of detail, textures of materials and great contrast, greatly due to the optimisation of the design for rendering he best feasible curvature of field.
A preset lever allows stopping down the aperture to the preselected diaphragm.
Making use of the perspective control of the perspective control of this lens, you can get everything looking right and still have your subject in the picture.
By shifting the whole optical system out of the axis, the angle of view is changed without having to tilt the camera. The lens has got the typical drawback in this kind of design: a strong vignetting, in this case of around 3.2 diaphragms at full aperture f/2.8.
A world class performer attaining perfectly straight lines from short distances in the typical building and architectural contexts where normal wideangles would obtain annoying converging lines when tilted upwards.
Leica R9, a very well-thought evolution of the already excellent Leica R8 model, something very different to the frequent programmed in advanced obsolescence featured by other professional reflex cameras of different brands all over the world.Among the new aspects introduced in the R9 with respect to the R8, we must highlight: a top panel made in a special magnesium and aluminum alloy; an automatic fill-in flash usable at full aperture in symbiosis with long exposure times; the matrix metering system sensitivity can be changed in 0.1 EV adjustments; the weight of the camera has been reduced 100 g (weighing now 790 g); the flash power can be manually corrected in program mode up to +- 3 diaphragms in increments of 1/3 stop; a new built-in frame meter on top on the right of the hot shoe; a metering lock feasible with all the automatic modes, both in centreweighted and spot choices; option of high speed flash synchronization up to 1/8000 sec in association with the Metz HSS system; and a new selector of programs wheel featuring a locking device which avoids unexpected changes on transporting or using it.
Also impressive the ergonomics of this camera, which is besides an epitome of reliability under the most extreme climatic conditions.
It was introduced in 2002 and it is very interesting the fact that both the Leica R8 and R9 had inner space reserved for an autofocusing motor which could be added in future.
Back view of the Leica R9, probably the best full frame SLR camera of all time together with the Nikon D3, Canon T90, Pentax LX, Canon EOS 1 V and Nikon F6. Just over the Leica Camera Made in Germany letters, we can see the information panel that in the R9, which unlike the one featured by the R8, now could be illuminated.
Aerial view of the Leica R9, exhibiting its spectacular distribution of dials and selector wheels which boast a great effectiveness in real photographic contexts.In spite of the remarkable size of the camera, the masses balance is superb, with a very sturdy manufacture damping sounds and operating vibrations to the utmost.
In the same way as happened with the R8 model, Leica has paid top attention to even the most minute details in this great photographic tool, for example the embedding of the main dials, knurled selector wheels and buttons well inside the body to make them as much unobtrusive as possible to the photographer.
Also top-notch the quality and dimensions of the strap lugs.
Things made this way can´t be cheap.
Interesting view from below of the Leica R9, clearly revealing the lower plate suitable to join some types of motorizations, depending on the photographic tasks. Once we attach a motor winder or motor drive, the camera begins to feed from the auxiliary battery inside them.This way, depending on which focus module is attached, the APO-TELYT-R 280/400/560 mm Lens Head becomes an Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/2.8, an Apo-Telyt-R 400 mm f/4 or an Apo-Telyt-R 560 mm f/5.6; while on the other hand, depending on which focus module you attach, the APO-TELYT-R 400/560/800 mm becomes an Apo-Telyt-R 400 mm f/2.8, an Apo-Telyt-R 560 mm f/4 or an Apo-Telyt-R 800 mm f/5.6, in all cases with utter professional very high image quality at full aperture.
A formidable tandem: chromed Leica R9 with Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH, now in 2008 one of the best standard zooms in the world, with a very interesting range of focal lengths and able to produce a quality of image comparable to many of the best primes in each of the focal lengths available between wideangle and medium teleobjective.
Leica R9 with Summilux-R 50 mm f/1.4 and the Digital-Modul-R attached. This has been a very high quality hybrid system able to offer the best in SLR analoge domain and a simultaneous very high quality of image choice in the digital scope.
Basically, it is a very up-to- date device setting up the first interchangeable digital back for a full frame 24 x 36 mm format professional reflex camera.
It features a high quality CCD 17´6 x 26´4 mm 6.8 micron pixel pitch digital sensor made by Kodak in collaboration with Imacon (a company well- known for its high end scanners and medium format digital camera backs), delivering a resolution of 10 megapixels and sporting a 1´37x multiplying factor, being able to produce RAW, TIFF and JPEG archives on SD cards.
It is true that the range of available sensitivities is low, between 100 and 800 isos, but the image quality within them is very high, something enhanced by the lack of anti-alias filter against moiré.
The whole system is an engineering marvel which produces very sharp Kodachrome images (specially between iso 250 and 400) and an extremely high colour accuracy.
It is true that its capture rate of two frames per second is very low, but the Digital-Modul-R was conceived as a pure photographic tool to make very high quality and careful photographs, without being in a hurry, enjoying time to analyze situations and with the photographer taking the important decisions without pressures of any type.
Taking into account that the very probable launching of the new top professional autofocus Leica R10 camera in the upcoming 2008 Photokina Köln will bring about a very significant drop in the price of Leica R8 and Leica R9, both of them attachable to the Digital-Module-R, a top-notch hybrid system which though discontinued in 2007, could be a more than interesting option in the second hand market for people not needing isos beyond 800 and wishing to use the comprehensive assortment of Leica R lenses between 15 mm and 800 mm connected to a very good digital sensor which has proved to render top-notch image quality.
On the other hand, the Leicas R8 and R9 connected to the Digital-Module-R feature another very little known asset in shots made between iso 100 and 400: though rendering a very high image quality, evidently it can´t compete with the tremendously low levels of noise of fabulous cameras like the Nikon D3, Nikon D700 or Canon EOS 1 Ds Mark III, but Leica optimised a very tight kind of noise much like the grain of a really fine grain chemical film, and truth is that image produced by the Digital-Module-R is the most resembling to Kodachrome produced till now in the world with a digital SLR camera, together with the specialized software DxO FilmPack software emulating top-notch classical films virtually unbeatable in terms of aesthetic beauty of image, faithful capturing of details, acutance and a wide number of aspects very important to the global final quality of image (not only resolution and contrast).
But with the Digital-Module-R the great advantage is that in a built-in way (without the need to use emulating softwares photograph per photograph after taking them) and instantly, pictures taken greatly look like the aesthetic traits of Kodachrome 64 between iso 100 and 200 and Kodachrome 200 between iso 320 and 400. And there´s one further important advantage: the reflection minimizing surface Treatment of the wafer thin protective filter of the CCD digital sensor of the Leica Digital-Module-R confers it remarkable anti scratch endurance, enabling the very easy and safe cleaning of the highly accessible sensor.
Therefore, to clean the sensor with the Leica Digital-Module-R is not a problem at all.
Even, there´s another added bonus: this tour de force digital system takes advantage of microlenses featuring a special structure fairly coordinated to the lens units, which allows the very high quality R lenses to deliver their full image quality to a great extent also in digital mode, rendering a very uniform and balanced picture brightness from center to edges, wiping out at the same time all kind of vignetting related to the sensor.
Back view of Leica R9 with the Digital-Modul-R attached. We can see the 1.8 inch colour monitor.
Leica R-9 with Digital-Modul-R and Summicron-R 35 mm f/2
During the manufacturing phase, the housing blank for the Leica R9 is provided with the suitable threads and bores.
The finished housing of the Leica R9 is thoroughly checked for an utter accuracy of dimensions.
The branched main circuit board of the Leica R9 is linked to the many points of contact.
A formidable tandem: chromed Leica R9 with Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH, now in 2008 one of the best standard zooms in the world, with a very interesting range of focal lengths and able to produce a quality of image comparable to many of the best primes in each of the focal lengths available between wideangle and medium teleobjective.
Leica R9 with Summilux-R 50 mm f/1.4 and the Digital-Modul-R attached. This has been a very high quality hybrid system able to offer the best in SLR analoge domain and a simultaneous very high quality of image choice in the digital scope.Basically, it is a very up-to- date device setting up the first interchangeable digital back for a full frame 24 x 36 mm format professional reflex camera.
It features a high quality CCD 17´6 x 26´4 mm 6.8 micron pixel pitch digital sensor made by Kodak in collaboration with Imacon (a company well- known for its high end scanners and medium format digital camera backs), delivering a resolution of 10 megapixels and sporting a 1´37x multiplying factor, being able to produce RAW, TIFF and JPEG archives on SD cards.
It is true that the range of available sensitivities is low, between 100 and 800 isos, but the image quality within them is very high, something enhanced by the lack of anti-alias filter against moiré.
The whole system is an engineering marvel which produces very sharp Kodachrome images (specially between iso 250 and 400) and an extremely high colour accuracy.
It is true that its capture rate of two frames per second is very low, but the Digital-Modul-R was conceived as a pure photographic tool to make very high quality and careful photographs, without being in a hurry, enjoying time to analyze situations and with the photographer taking the important decisions without pressures of any type.
Taking into account that the very probable launching of the new top professional autofocus Leica R10 camera in the upcoming 2008 Photokina Köln will bring about a very significant drop in the price of Leica R8 and Leica R9, both of them attachable to the Digital-Module-R, a top-notch hybrid system which though discontinued in 2007, could be a more than interesting option in the second hand market for people not needing isos beyond 800 and wishing to use the comprehensive assortment of Leica R lenses between 15 mm and 800 mm connected to a very good digital sensor which has proved to render top-notch image quality.
On the other hand, the Leicas R8 and R9 connected to the Digital-Module-R feature another very little known asset in shots made between iso 100 and 400: though rendering a very high image quality, evidently it can´t compete with the tremendously low levels of noise of fabulous cameras like the Nikon D3, Nikon D700 or Canon EOS 1 Ds Mark III, but Leica optimised a very tight kind of noise much like the grain of a really fine grain chemical film, and truth is that image produced by the Digital-Module-R is the most resembling to Kodachrome produced till now in the world with a digital SLR camera, together with the specialized software DxO FilmPack software emulating top-notch classical films virtually unbeatable in terms of aesthetic beauty of image, faithful capturing of details, acutance and a wide number of aspects very important to the global final quality of image (not only resolution and contrast).
But with the Digital-Module-R the great advantage is that in a built-in way (without the need to use emulating softwares photograph per photograph after taking them) and instantly, pictures taken greatly look like the aesthetic traits of Kodachrome 64 between iso 100 and 200 and Kodachrome 200 between iso 320 and 400. And there´s one further important advantage: the reflection minimizing surface Treatment of the wafer thin protective filter of the CCD digital sensor of the Leica Digital-Module-R confers it remarkable anti scratch endurance, enabling the very easy and safe cleaning of the highly accessible sensor.
Therefore, to clean the sensor with the Leica Digital-Module-R is not a problem at all.
Even, there´s another added bonus: this tour de force digital system takes advantage of microlenses featuring a special structure fairly coordinated to the lens units, which allows the very high quality R lenses to deliver their full image quality to a great extent also in digital mode, rendering a very uniform and balanced picture brightness from center to edges, wiping out at the same time all kind of vignetting related to the sensor.
Back view of Leica R9 with the Digital-Modul-R attached. We can see the 1.8 inch colour monitor.
Leica R-9 with Digital-Modul-R and Summicron-R 35 mm f/2
During the manufacturing phase, the housing blank for the Leica R9 is provided with the suitable threads and bores.
The finished housing of the Leica R9 is thoroughly checked for an utter accuracy of dimensions.
The branched main circuit board of the Leica R9 is linked to the many points of contact.On the other hand, and in the same way as happens to the Manual Focus Leica M Line, the Manual Focus Leica R Lenses Glasses and Optical Design Make the Difference in terms of producing Extraordinary Image Quality, because innovation in optics goes on being a Leica R speciality as is proved by the more than 60 patents Leica holds and impressive results from many experts all over the world, confirming that Manual Focus Leica R Lenses feature excellent imaging performance even at full aperture with the fastest lenses.
After the completion of the preassembly, it´s time to gather the front panel and housing of the Leica R9.
Vario-Elmar-R 21-35 mm f/3.5-4 ASPH, currently in 2008 the best wideangle zoom in the world for full format reflex cameras. It features 9 elements in 8 groups (two of them aspherical), with a focusing range between 0.5 m and infinite and a weight of 500 g. A dream come true.
For the first time in history, Leica introduced with this incredible zoom a lens able to make architectural photography indoors without problems and with almost negligible levels of distortion in all the focal lengths between 21 mm and 35 mm.
But that´s not everything. Truth is that this impressive zoom renders a tremendous image quality in terms of definition and contrast, comparable to a high percentage of the best 21, 24, 28 and 35 mm primes, a wholly remarkable optical feat which for many decades was considered to be impossible to create, specially in a wideangle zoom with such a big range of focal lengths.
The logical thing would have been the designing of this zoom with many elements and groups, following the usual widespread trend of the photographic market in this respect, but from the scratch Leica wanted to attain an excellent crispness of the photos at full aperture in each focal length of the range and so as to accomplish it, made the design with only 9 elements, and it paid off, because this wonder of designing beats many high level primes even in the sharpness of the corners of image surface, something really awesome and in the boundary of the feasible with the current scientific knowledge.
On the other hand, Leica made a titanic effort in the distortion side, leaving it in outstandingly low values of around 0.9% at 35 mm, 1.8% at 28 mm and 3.5% at the very critical and difficult to tackle focal length of 21 mm.
Besides, the research investment in order to design this super zoom was of great magnitude and Leica was bound to resort to all of its know-how in ultramodern coating techniques and painstaking treatment of the optical glass surfaces to be able to fulfil it.
There´s one further astonishing aspect: at all the focal lengths that the photographer can choose with this top-notch wide-angle zoom, the quality of image doesn´t improve on stopping it down, always achieving tremendous sharpness, definition and contrast in a very even way, over the whole frame, from the center to the borders and extreme corners.
A strenuous struggle took place to achieve the superb optical correction exhibited by the Vario-Elmar-R 21-35 mm f/3.5-4 ASPH, with coma and flare having been reduced to insignificant levels and resolution often going beyond 100 lines/mm in different focal lengths and apertures of its range!
It reproduces the colours and its nuances with remarkable accuracy, while falloff figures fluctuate between 1.95 diaphragms in the extreme shortest focal length of 21 mm and 1 diaphragm in the longest range of 35 mm.
It´s a very compact and versatile zoom lens, with an angle of view coverage between 91.6º at 21 mm and 63.4º at 35 mm, and it covers the full scope of the most frequently used focal lengths in the wideangle range, and apart from the two already quoted aspherical elements (made with a fairly up-to-date accurate polishing technique), it also sports two lens elements made of high refraction optical glass and glass with anomalous partial dispersion.
And perhaps the biggest advantage: this wonderful zoom lens is a super stellar performer in a wide variety of photographic works which under normal conditions would require the use of four different wideangle lenses, specially in contexts making shots of people and their nearby surroundings or looking for landscape picture in which an important feeling of depth is the key factor.
It also features internal focusing in the first vario group of elements so as to foster optimum performance also in the nearest distances.
Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM, currently in 2008 undoubtedly the best standard zoom in the world for full frame reflex cameras, even beating both in optical and mechanical performance the legendary Nikkor 35-70 2.8 AF, Canon EF 28-70 mm f/2.8 L, Canon 24-70 mm f/2.8L (the most widespread f/2.8 high quality zoom within the professional photographer domain), Olympus 35-80 mm f/2.8, Nikkor AF-S 24-70 mm f/2.8G ED (a wonder sporting superb nanocrystal antireflection coating in the front element, together with other super multicoatings and the great merit of having attained very contained volume and weight, featuring 15 elements in 11 groups, three glass molded aspherical ones and three ED, together with the typical marvellous petal shaped hood) and the fabulous Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 24-70 mm f/2.8 ZA (another marvel featuring 17 elements (two of them aspheric and two extra low dispersion in 13 groups), along with SSM technology.
Launched into market in 1999, the Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM features 11 elements in 9 groups and a weight of 1050 g. With this fabulous optical design, Leica accomplished a tremendous challenge: the manufacture of a standard zoom able to match the image quality of the best standard focal lengths in the range between 35 mm and 70 mm, id est, the most frequent Rolls-Royces of the Leica R assortment primes.
And they did achieve it indeed, setting from then a new standard of image quality and mechanical accuracy which goes on reigning undisputed now in 2008, with an incredible centering which is a full-fledged tour de force, brutal sharpness, impressive contrast and superb capturing of the most minute and intricate fine details.
The optical performance of this out of parameters zoom lens is also amazing in the reproduction of the outlines of the subjects (an aspect to which Leica pays a lot of attention) and all kind of textures.
The curvature field has likewise been reduced to almost zero, and incredibly, at full aperture and 35 m setting, it very slightly beats at full aperture f/2.8 the Summicron-R 35 mm f/2 at f/2.8, and at the setting of 50 mm and f/2.8 its optical performance approaches very much to the one featured by the patron Summicron-R 50 mm f/2 at f/2.8. This is somethin fantastic, in the boundary of the impossible and Leica deserves top accolades for it.
Incredibly, the optical performance of this ´Rolls-Royce´ lens reaches its maximum quality at f/2.8 and f/4 and drops from f/5.6 on, both in the 35 mm and the 50 mm settings (even a bit more in this latter focal length, where the optical performance is on a par with the Summicron-R 50 mm f/2 at f/2.8!).
But things go even beyond, and if the setting of 70 mm is chosen by the photographer, the optical performance of the zoom reaches its astounding zenith, being comparable when used at f/2.8 to the Apo-Elmarit-R 180 mm f/2.8 at full aperture!, once more with the image quality dropping a bit between f/5.6 and f/8.
On the other hand, the Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM keeps on delivering superb image quality in shots taken under strongly backlighted subjects, and has proved to boast a tremendous resistance to flare and all kinds of reflections, greatly due to its formidable multicoating.
It´s also a super stellar performer for night photography, reproducing very accurately the blacks in the shadows and greatly preserving the colour nuances of the most obscure chromatic areas and objects.
To sum up, the Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM is the best standard zoom lens of all time and still the champion to beat, having been designed with the incredible goal of achieving an optical performance matching specially at full aperture f/2.8 the quality of image rendered at f/2.8 by the Summicron-R 35 mm f/2, the Summicron-R 50 mm f/2, the Macro-Elmarit-R 60 mm f/2 and the Summilux-R 80 mm f/1.4, but also their performance on stopping down (though in a very awesome way the Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM, albeit rendering superb image quality at f/5.6 and f/8, reaches its best optical performance figures at f/2.8 and f/4 throughout its range of focal lengths).
But only 200 units were made, because Leica put all of itself in this extremely tour de force design and the production cost was tremendously high and so the selling price, to such an extent that this Bugatti zoom had to be discontinued and now second hand price units (very difficult to find because usually the owners don´t want to get rid of them) reach a price between 6,000 and 8,000 euros.
There´s a tremendous excitement regarding the chance that Leica has managed to produce an autofocus standard zoom with out of this world optical performance similar to the Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM with the shortest focal length having been stretched up to 28 mm and if they will have attained enough expertise to make such a superelite f/2.8 autofocus zoom preserving the brutal parameters of accurate adjustment, choice of the best available materials, minimum feasible quantity of elements and groups, near zero tolerances and so forth with an autofocus system inside the barrel of the objective.
If that´s so and hints point in that direction, the photographic world could tremble, specially if they have been able to reduce cost production and therefore selling price.
Inverted view of the Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM. The mechanical quality of this utterly out of parameters great aperture zooms lens and the silky smoothness of its focusing ring bear the Leica hallmark, without forgetting the choice of the best possible noble metals for the barrel of the objective and a number of internal components.
The mechanizing of the mount is superb, along with the quality of the chosen metals. The nine golden ROM contacts for transmission of data between the lens and body camera are visible on top of the Leica R mount.
Super-Elmar-R 15 mm f/3.5. A world class performer super-wide angle, featuring 13 elements in 12 groups, a 110º angle of view and a weight of 910 g. It delivers an exceptional quality of image and very low distortion bearing in mind its extreme focal length.
This lens was launched into market in 1980 and produced until 2000. In spite of the 28 years elapsed, it goes on being currently in 2008 one of the best super wideangles in the world in its focal length and maximum f/3.5 aperture. It excels in evenness of exposure both in the center and corners of the image surface.
Its minimum focusing distance is 16 cm and must be used preferably with the lens hood on, since its front elements is very bent, something common to vast majority of extreme wideangles like this, and it brings about a strong bias to flare.
To fully understand the impressive optical performance of this lens, it´s important to know that it is inspired and shares almost the same 100% optical formula than the famous Zeiss Distagon T* 15 mm f/3.5 (made in Oberkochen and also sporting 13 elements in 12 groups and a slightly lower weight of 875 g) but with special Leica element coatings, built-in filters and barrel finish.
Likewise, the Super-Elmar-R 15 mm f/3.5 boasts a floating element enabling a very high degree of correction of aberrations when making shots at the nearest distances.
A wonderful lens for landscape, architectural photography, fashion and advertisements, allowing the implementation of highly expressive effects and offering extraordinary and unique creative possibilities in the image composition only feasible with this focal length.
With this super wideangle jewel, the photographer can take advantage of the creative use of the very enhanced close-up perspective, delivering scale models as if they were life-like, also getting an impressive feeling of spatial depth with everything in focus, from the closest focusing distance to far away objects.
It delivers a top-notch power of resolution, great contrast and superb capturing of details, reaching its best between f/4 and f/5.6. At full aperture f/3.5 falloff is around 1.8 diaphragm.
It comes with a filter turret and four filters: ultraviolet, yellow, orange and blue. ROM contacts can be attached by Leica to early samples, and units produced from 1996 have them built-in.
Super-Elmarit-R 15 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM, currently in 2008 the best 15 mm lens for full frame reflex cameras in the world. Introduced in 2001, this tremendously tour de force design features 13 elements (one of them, the second, being aspherical and also having four with very low dispersion and six made of highly refractive glass) in 10 groups, with a weight of 710 g.
Incredibly for such an extreme wideangle, flare and all kind of reflections have been reduced to almost zero, though its use without hood is very safe, even with backlighted subjects, hood is always recommended just in case.
This out of this world super wideangle renders a brutally high image quality, even at full aperture f/2.8 on the whole surface of the frame, both in center and extreme corners, mainly as to sharpness, contrast, and incredibly faithful reproduction of the most minute details and textures, with a wonderful accuracy of colours and great ability to very subtly reproduce all the nuances in high key and low key areas of the image.
Its minimum focusing distance is 18 cm and its is a very suitable lens for indoors photography in which the undistorted coverage of the full spaces is top priority, also being a super stellar performer in genres such as architecture, fashion, all kind of advertisements, groups of people, etc.
It sports a built-in filter revolver with a neutral density filter, an orange filter, a yellow green filter and KB-12 artificial light conversion filter, with the neutral one that must be always be attached, since it´s a component of the optical formula which reaches its top performance at f/5.6, though the behaviour of this lens at both f/2.8 and f/4 is astounding. Its vignetting and curvature of field are very low for such an extreme wide angle lens.
Actually, the Super-Elmarit-R 15 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM is a super top-notch Schneider-Kreuznach design made under Leica parameters of image: tremendously accurate centering (specially bearing in mind the very big size of the lens elements, superlative minimizing of distortion, incredible preserving of straight lines in all kind of buildings and architecture motifs, reduction of falloff to minimum feasible figures, impressive keeping of body shapes even in the corners of the image surface (an imposing optical feat with this type of extreme designs), remarkable compactness and amazing correction of aberrations.
Notwithstanding, best results will be achieved with the camera and lens on a sturdy tripod, to reduce to zero the levels of distortions produced by any small misalignment when the lens is not aiming at the central axis of the subject, also being a super stellar performer delivering dynamic perspectives with dominant foregrounds, something highly enhanced by the minimum focusing distance of 18 cm, sporting internal focusing and a floating element for the optimisation of the image quality at the nearest distances.
Definitely, the Super-Elmarit-R 15 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM improves the performance of the previous Super-Elmar-R 15 mm f/3.5 not only at f/3.5, f/4 and f/5.6, but even at its full f/2.8 aperture, another brutal optical tour de force design in the Leica line-up of R Lenses, because the Super-Elmar-R 15 mm f/3.5 goes on being currently one of the best superwideangle lenses in the world and for many years it was deemed almost impossible to beat, but it has been fulfilled with the added bonus that the Super-Elmarit-R 15 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM boasts double luminosity, which increased the strenuous designing efforts in geometrical proportions.
But perhaps the most remarkable trait of this gorgeous superwideangle is that in a wide range of photographic tasks, its rendition of perspectives is supreme, getting very natural images different to the usual shots taken with this kind of extreme wideangles which most times deliver excessively strong perspectives, stressful feelings, very evident distortions, etc.
But in a rather spectacular way, truth is that pictures taken with the Super-Elmarit-R 15 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM convey great levels of harmony and naturality very rarely seen in a 15 mm superwide lens, which becomes it a class apart in many a respect and a prodigy of rectilinear image.
To sum up, the Super-Elmarit-R 15 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM combines a high speed with the highest possible reproduction quality in every regard and is still more compact than the previous Super-Elmar-R 15 mm f/3.5.
After the completion of the preassembly, it´s time to gather the front panel and housing of the Leica R9.
Vario-Elmar-R 21-35 mm f/3.5-4 ASPH, currently in 2008 the best wideangle zoom in the world for full format reflex cameras. It features 9 elements in 8 groups (two of them aspherical), with a focusing range between 0.5 m and infinite and a weight of 500 g. A dream come true.For the first time in history, Leica introduced with this incredible zoom a lens able to make architectural photography indoors without problems and with almost negligible levels of distortion in all the focal lengths between 21 mm and 35 mm.
But that´s not everything. Truth is that this impressive zoom renders a tremendous image quality in terms of definition and contrast, comparable to a high percentage of the best 21, 24, 28 and 35 mm primes, a wholly remarkable optical feat which for many decades was considered to be impossible to create, specially in a wideangle zoom with such a big range of focal lengths.
The logical thing would have been the designing of this zoom with many elements and groups, following the usual widespread trend of the photographic market in this respect, but from the scratch Leica wanted to attain an excellent crispness of the photos at full aperture in each focal length of the range and so as to accomplish it, made the design with only 9 elements, and it paid off, because this wonder of designing beats many high level primes even in the sharpness of the corners of image surface, something really awesome and in the boundary of the feasible with the current scientific knowledge.
On the other hand, Leica made a titanic effort in the distortion side, leaving it in outstandingly low values of around 0.9% at 35 mm, 1.8% at 28 mm and 3.5% at the very critical and difficult to tackle focal length of 21 mm.
Besides, the research investment in order to design this super zoom was of great magnitude and Leica was bound to resort to all of its know-how in ultramodern coating techniques and painstaking treatment of the optical glass surfaces to be able to fulfil it.
There´s one further astonishing aspect: at all the focal lengths that the photographer can choose with this top-notch wide-angle zoom, the quality of image doesn´t improve on stopping it down, always achieving tremendous sharpness, definition and contrast in a very even way, over the whole frame, from the center to the borders and extreme corners.
A strenuous struggle took place to achieve the superb optical correction exhibited by the Vario-Elmar-R 21-35 mm f/3.5-4 ASPH, with coma and flare having been reduced to insignificant levels and resolution often going beyond 100 lines/mm in different focal lengths and apertures of its range!
It reproduces the colours and its nuances with remarkable accuracy, while falloff figures fluctuate between 1.95 diaphragms in the extreme shortest focal length of 21 mm and 1 diaphragm in the longest range of 35 mm.
It´s a very compact and versatile zoom lens, with an angle of view coverage between 91.6º at 21 mm and 63.4º at 35 mm, and it covers the full scope of the most frequently used focal lengths in the wideangle range, and apart from the two already quoted aspherical elements (made with a fairly up-to-date accurate polishing technique), it also sports two lens elements made of high refraction optical glass and glass with anomalous partial dispersion.
And perhaps the biggest advantage: this wonderful zoom lens is a super stellar performer in a wide variety of photographic works which under normal conditions would require the use of four different wideangle lenses, specially in contexts making shots of people and their nearby surroundings or looking for landscape picture in which an important feeling of depth is the key factor.
It also features internal focusing in the first vario group of elements so as to foster optimum performance also in the nearest distances.
Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM, currently in 2008 undoubtedly the best standard zoom in the world for full frame reflex cameras, even beating both in optical and mechanical performance the legendary Nikkor 35-70 2.8 AF, Canon EF 28-70 mm f/2.8 L, Canon 24-70 mm f/2.8L (the most widespread f/2.8 high quality zoom within the professional photographer domain), Olympus 35-80 mm f/2.8, Nikkor AF-S 24-70 mm f/2.8G ED (a wonder sporting superb nanocrystal antireflection coating in the front element, together with other super multicoatings and the great merit of having attained very contained volume and weight, featuring 15 elements in 11 groups, three glass molded aspherical ones and three ED, together with the typical marvellous petal shaped hood) and the fabulous Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 24-70 mm f/2.8 ZA (another marvel featuring 17 elements (two of them aspheric and two extra low dispersion in 13 groups), along with SSM technology.Launched into market in 1999, the Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM features 11 elements in 9 groups and a weight of 1050 g. With this fabulous optical design, Leica accomplished a tremendous challenge: the manufacture of a standard zoom able to match the image quality of the best standard focal lengths in the range between 35 mm and 70 mm, id est, the most frequent Rolls-Royces of the Leica R assortment primes.
And they did achieve it indeed, setting from then a new standard of image quality and mechanical accuracy which goes on reigning undisputed now in 2008, with an incredible centering which is a full-fledged tour de force, brutal sharpness, impressive contrast and superb capturing of the most minute and intricate fine details.
The optical performance of this out of parameters zoom lens is also amazing in the reproduction of the outlines of the subjects (an aspect to which Leica pays a lot of attention) and all kind of textures.
The curvature field has likewise been reduced to almost zero, and incredibly, at full aperture and 35 m setting, it very slightly beats at full aperture f/2.8 the Summicron-R 35 mm f/2 at f/2.8, and at the setting of 50 mm and f/2.8 its optical performance approaches very much to the one featured by the patron Summicron-R 50 mm f/2 at f/2.8. This is somethin fantastic, in the boundary of the impossible and Leica deserves top accolades for it.
Incredibly, the optical performance of this ´Rolls-Royce´ lens reaches its maximum quality at f/2.8 and f/4 and drops from f/5.6 on, both in the 35 mm and the 50 mm settings (even a bit more in this latter focal length, where the optical performance is on a par with the Summicron-R 50 mm f/2 at f/2.8!).
But things go even beyond, and if the setting of 70 mm is chosen by the photographer, the optical performance of the zoom reaches its astounding zenith, being comparable when used at f/2.8 to the Apo-Elmarit-R 180 mm f/2.8 at full aperture!, once more with the image quality dropping a bit between f/5.6 and f/8.
On the other hand, the Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM keeps on delivering superb image quality in shots taken under strongly backlighted subjects, and has proved to boast a tremendous resistance to flare and all kinds of reflections, greatly due to its formidable multicoating.
It´s also a super stellar performer for night photography, reproducing very accurately the blacks in the shadows and greatly preserving the colour nuances of the most obscure chromatic areas and objects.
To sum up, the Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM is the best standard zoom lens of all time and still the champion to beat, having been designed with the incredible goal of achieving an optical performance matching specially at full aperture f/2.8 the quality of image rendered at f/2.8 by the Summicron-R 35 mm f/2, the Summicron-R 50 mm f/2, the Macro-Elmarit-R 60 mm f/2 and the Summilux-R 80 mm f/1.4, but also their performance on stopping down (though in a very awesome way the Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM, albeit rendering superb image quality at f/5.6 and f/8, reaches its best optical performance figures at f/2.8 and f/4 throughout its range of focal lengths).
But only 200 units were made, because Leica put all of itself in this extremely tour de force design and the production cost was tremendously high and so the selling price, to such an extent that this Bugatti zoom had to be discontinued and now second hand price units (very difficult to find because usually the owners don´t want to get rid of them) reach a price between 6,000 and 8,000 euros.
There´s a tremendous excitement regarding the chance that Leica has managed to produce an autofocus standard zoom with out of this world optical performance similar to the Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM with the shortest focal length having been stretched up to 28 mm and if they will have attained enough expertise to make such a superelite f/2.8 autofocus zoom preserving the brutal parameters of accurate adjustment, choice of the best available materials, minimum feasible quantity of elements and groups, near zero tolerances and so forth with an autofocus system inside the barrel of the objective.
If that´s so and hints point in that direction, the photographic world could tremble, specially if they have been able to reduce cost production and therefore selling price.
Inverted view of the Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM. The mechanical quality of this utterly out of parameters great aperture zooms lens and the silky smoothness of its focusing ring bear the Leica hallmark, without forgetting the choice of the best possible noble metals for the barrel of the objective and a number of internal components.The mechanizing of the mount is superb, along with the quality of the chosen metals. The nine golden ROM contacts for transmission of data between the lens and body camera are visible on top of the Leica R mount.
Super-Elmar-R 15 mm f/3.5. A world class performer super-wide angle, featuring 13 elements in 12 groups, a 110º angle of view and a weight of 910 g. It delivers an exceptional quality of image and very low distortion bearing in mind its extreme focal length.This lens was launched into market in 1980 and produced until 2000. In spite of the 28 years elapsed, it goes on being currently in 2008 one of the best super wideangles in the world in its focal length and maximum f/3.5 aperture. It excels in evenness of exposure both in the center and corners of the image surface.
Its minimum focusing distance is 16 cm and must be used preferably with the lens hood on, since its front elements is very bent, something common to vast majority of extreme wideangles like this, and it brings about a strong bias to flare.
To fully understand the impressive optical performance of this lens, it´s important to know that it is inspired and shares almost the same 100% optical formula than the famous Zeiss Distagon T* 15 mm f/3.5 (made in Oberkochen and also sporting 13 elements in 12 groups and a slightly lower weight of 875 g) but with special Leica element coatings, built-in filters and barrel finish.
Likewise, the Super-Elmar-R 15 mm f/3.5 boasts a floating element enabling a very high degree of correction of aberrations when making shots at the nearest distances.
A wonderful lens for landscape, architectural photography, fashion and advertisements, allowing the implementation of highly expressive effects and offering extraordinary and unique creative possibilities in the image composition only feasible with this focal length.
With this super wideangle jewel, the photographer can take advantage of the creative use of the very enhanced close-up perspective, delivering scale models as if they were life-like, also getting an impressive feeling of spatial depth with everything in focus, from the closest focusing distance to far away objects.
It delivers a top-notch power of resolution, great contrast and superb capturing of details, reaching its best between f/4 and f/5.6. At full aperture f/3.5 falloff is around 1.8 diaphragm.
It comes with a filter turret and four filters: ultraviolet, yellow, orange and blue. ROM contacts can be attached by Leica to early samples, and units produced from 1996 have them built-in.
Super-Elmarit-R 15 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM, currently in 2008 the best 15 mm lens for full frame reflex cameras in the world. Introduced in 2001, this tremendously tour de force design features 13 elements (one of them, the second, being aspherical and also having four with very low dispersion and six made of highly refractive glass) in 10 groups, with a weight of 710 g.Incredibly for such an extreme wideangle, flare and all kind of reflections have been reduced to almost zero, though its use without hood is very safe, even with backlighted subjects, hood is always recommended just in case.
This out of this world super wideangle renders a brutally high image quality, even at full aperture f/2.8 on the whole surface of the frame, both in center and extreme corners, mainly as to sharpness, contrast, and incredibly faithful reproduction of the most minute details and textures, with a wonderful accuracy of colours and great ability to very subtly reproduce all the nuances in high key and low key areas of the image.
Its minimum focusing distance is 18 cm and its is a very suitable lens for indoors photography in which the undistorted coverage of the full spaces is top priority, also being a super stellar performer in genres such as architecture, fashion, all kind of advertisements, groups of people, etc.
It sports a built-in filter revolver with a neutral density filter, an orange filter, a yellow green filter and KB-12 artificial light conversion filter, with the neutral one that must be always be attached, since it´s a component of the optical formula which reaches its top performance at f/5.6, though the behaviour of this lens at both f/2.8 and f/4 is astounding. Its vignetting and curvature of field are very low for such an extreme wide angle lens.
Actually, the Super-Elmarit-R 15 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM is a super top-notch Schneider-Kreuznach design made under Leica parameters of image: tremendously accurate centering (specially bearing in mind the very big size of the lens elements, superlative minimizing of distortion, incredible preserving of straight lines in all kind of buildings and architecture motifs, reduction of falloff to minimum feasible figures, impressive keeping of body shapes even in the corners of the image surface (an imposing optical feat with this type of extreme designs), remarkable compactness and amazing correction of aberrations.
Notwithstanding, best results will be achieved with the camera and lens on a sturdy tripod, to reduce to zero the levels of distortions produced by any small misalignment when the lens is not aiming at the central axis of the subject, also being a super stellar performer delivering dynamic perspectives with dominant foregrounds, something highly enhanced by the minimum focusing distance of 18 cm, sporting internal focusing and a floating element for the optimisation of the image quality at the nearest distances.
Definitely, the Super-Elmarit-R 15 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM improves the performance of the previous Super-Elmar-R 15 mm f/3.5 not only at f/3.5, f/4 and f/5.6, but even at its full f/2.8 aperture, another brutal optical tour de force design in the Leica line-up of R Lenses, because the Super-Elmar-R 15 mm f/3.5 goes on being currently one of the best superwideangle lenses in the world and for many years it was deemed almost impossible to beat, but it has been fulfilled with the added bonus that the Super-Elmarit-R 15 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM boasts double luminosity, which increased the strenuous designing efforts in geometrical proportions.
But perhaps the most remarkable trait of this gorgeous superwideangle is that in a wide range of photographic tasks, its rendition of perspectives is supreme, getting very natural images different to the usual shots taken with this kind of extreme wideangles which most times deliver excessively strong perspectives, stressful feelings, very evident distortions, etc.
But in a rather spectacular way, truth is that pictures taken with the Super-Elmarit-R 15 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM convey great levels of harmony and naturality very rarely seen in a 15 mm superwide lens, which becomes it a class apart in many a respect and a prodigy of rectilinear image.
To sum up, the Super-Elmarit-R 15 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM combines a high speed with the highest possible reproduction quality in every regard and is still more compact than the previous Super-Elmar-R 15 mm f/3.5.
A key factor in each Leica R Lens produced is the choice of top-notch quality types of glasses, many of which are rare and expensive. They´re melted according to specific Leica formulas and sparkling crystal clear lens elements are thoroughly made with craftsmanship accuracy. Together with their precise centering, their very concrete shapes and coatings are seminal in establishing the quality of Leica R lenses.
The design of all Leica lenses is presided over by the use of high refractive indexes and low dispersion glasses. As a matter of fact, exclusive Leica developed Extra Low Dispersion ED glass is not only used in the telephoto domain, but also from wideangles to zoom lenses, since the very remarkable Leica ED glass optimises brilliant colour results. And the basis from which all Leica R lenses (and M) are built are exclusive optical formulas from its own.
Elmarit-R 24 mm f/2.8. Launched into market in 1974, this is a very good wideangle lens, though not stellar. It features 9 elements (four of them cemented in pairs and one floating which greatly fosters a high quality of image in the nearest focusing distances) and a weight of only 400 g.
A very compact and versatile lens boasting remarkable sharpness and contrast in the center, even at full aperture, though to get good image quality in the corners is necessary stopping down to f/5.6.
Vignetting is around 1.9 at full aperture. Its minimum focusing distance is 30 cm.
This is a very useful wideangle for dynamic photojournalism when making pictures inside confined spaces, generating amazing pictures with remarkable perspectives, but at the same time, they don´t seem to have been made with a superwide lens, in spite of the fact that its barrel distortion is perhaps a bit excessive to Leica standards.
In my opinion, there are some stellar performers of other brands beating the optical performance of the Elmarit-R 24 mm f/2.8 in this focal range like the manual focusing Canon FD 24 mm f/1.4 S.S.C Aspherical, manual focusing Canon FD 24 mm f/1.4L (featuring 10 elements in 8 groups and an aspherical element) both of them with the aspherical lens as the front element to minimize spherical aberration and the typical barrel distortion common in the super wideangles, the manual focusing Minolta MD Rokkor-X 24 mm f/2.8, the Nikkor 24 mm f/2.8 in its three versions (manual focusing AI, AIS and AF D) featuring 9 elements in 9 groups, 7 diaphragm blades, CRC floating element for high quality of image at the nearest focusing distances and the famous Nikon Integrated Coating avoiding flare and ghost and providing very good colour balance, probably the super wideangle with best price/quality ratio in history, and above all the superb current manual focusing Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 25 mm f/2.8 ZM (available in F bayonet, K bayonet and M42) which is in my opinion the world reference in this focal length, boasting 10 elements in 8 groups, a minimum focusing distance of 17 cm and clearly delivering the best image quality on earth in the 24/25 mm domain for full format reflex cameras, without forgetting the legendary 8 elements Distagon 25 mm f/2.8 from 1963.
Elmarit-R 28 mm f/2.8 ROM. A stellar performer and currently in 2008 the best lens in the world in its focal length and maximum aperture in terms of power of resolution, contrast and superb capturing of details and textures of the subjects on the whole image surface, both in the center and corners, even at full aperture f/2.8, reaching its optimum image quality at f/4 and f/5.6.
It was launched into market in 1994 and features 8 elements in 7 groups, with a floating element which greatly helps to attain an impressive quality of image also in the nearest focusing distances.
A highly versatile and compact lens, delivering exceptional image quality throughout its focusing range, from 30 cm to infinite, with a very low weight of 310 g. The correction of aberrations is absolutely top-notch and it sports a high quality sliding lens hood.
Besides, Leica has managed to reduce the vignetting figures of this wideangle lens to almost zero, even at full f/2.8 aperture in the extreme corners!, which is another optical feat fulfilled by the legendary German firm. Pay attention to the wonderful lens shade made with top-notch quality materials.
The also formidable and most recently introduced manual focusing Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 28 mm f/2.8 (even more compact with a weight of 280 g, featuring 7 elements in 7 groups and an even shorter minimum focusing distance of 25 cm) is in my opinion the only one current 28 mm which can approach the optical performance of the Elmarit-R 28 mm f/2.8 ROM.
Inverted image of an Elmarit-R 28 mm f/2.8 ROM, showing the splendid finishing and mechanizing of the metal Leica R mount and the scalloped manual focusing ring.
Likewise impressive the accuracy and security of attachment between lens and hood, very different for instance to the flimsy and very loose attachment between the excellent Canon EF 24-70 2.8 L and its big plastic hood, a detail to improve in that great Japanese professional zoom.
Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH ROM, a stellar performer and currently in 2008 the second best professional standard zoom lens in the world (only beaten by the Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70 mm f/2.8 ASPH), featuring 11 elements (2 of them being aspheric, the first one and the last one) in 8 groups, a weight of 740 g and a minimum focusing distance of 60 cm.
It is true that a constant full aperture f/2.8 would have been more desirable, but because of the very wide range of focal lengths between wideangle 28 mm and medium teleobjective 90 mm, it would have brought about a brutal increase in dimensions, bulk and weight, together with a terrifying increase in the final price if trying to keep the same impressive image quality.
The Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH ROM clearly beats the optical performance of the excellent Canon 24-70 mm f/2.8 L and the new and superb Nikkor AF-S 24-70 mm f/2.8 G ED and the fabulous Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 24-70 mm f/2.8, also surpassing them in reach, but it isn´t less true that the constant f/2.8 aperture between 28 and 70 mm of the Nikon, Canon and Carl Zeiss professional f/2.8 zooms together with the very useful 24 mm focal length, in my opinion give them the upper hand in photojournalism, though things would level very much if the new upcoming top professional digital full format autofocus Leica R10 renders top-notch image quality and lack of noise between iso 1000 and 2500 approximately, because regarding optical and mechanical performance, brutal image quality and lack of distortion in all its focal lengths, the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ROM is currently in 2008 the best professional standard zoom in the world, only beaten by the Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM which is a world apart in itself, but with a much more limited focal range.
However, it´s very important to bear in mind that to stretch a zoom design to the focal length of 24 mm increases the designing difficulties in a geometrical way and makes more difficult to get a superb image quality throughout the whole range of focal lengths at full aperture (including the 24 mm setting), with which the choice of the quoted top-notch zooms made by Nikon, Canon and Carl Zeiss is evidently another very good option.
The Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH ROM is an absolutely superb lens throughout the whole range of focal lengths and apertures, delivering extraordinary image quality with impressive sharpness and contrast, apart from boasting very little distortion in either end (the highest figures in this regard being in the wideangle 28 mm setting with around 2.8 % in barrel) and great bokeh, competing without problems with the best 28 mm, 35 mm, 50 mm, 60 mm, 75 mm, 80 mm and 90 mm primes between f/2.8 and f/5.6 but with the great advantages and versatility for the photographer of being able to instantly select all the focal lengths between 28 mm and 90 mm, apart from saving a lot of weight and space, though in the current state of science primes are unbeatable very clearly between f/1 and f/2, and slightly at f/2.8, though things are progressively equalling in this aperture very used by professional photographers and shutterbugs.
On the other hand, this superb zoom lens features a breakthrough and innovative device which guarantees an absence of friction to practical effects of the mechanical components during movements. This way, the photographer can relish a velvety choice of distances and focal lengths.
Besides, it is of maximum significance to bear in mind that under normal conditions a zoom with the out of this world optical performance and image quality rendered by the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH ROM (which also features a very good ergonomics) would have probably needed between 18 and 20 elements plus a high number of groups in order to properly implement the optical design.
But Leica has made a very strenuous effort and has managed to reduce the number of elements to only 11 elements and 8 groups, in my opinion one of the biggest optical feats in the history of photographic lenses for full frame reflex cameras, taking into account the very wide range of focal lengths, the tremendous image quality it delivers and the very interesting available maximum apertures between f/2.8 in the wideangle setting and f/4.5 in the 90 mm one, and everything with a very low weight of 740 g.
It should be likewise highlighted that Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH ROM has been optimised to render impressive image quality both on the center and corners of the image surface, which it achieves at all focal lengths and diaphragms, and these very uniform and balanced gorgeous optical performance beats in this respect most of the best primes, whose optical formula has been designed mainly optimising center performance.
But there´s more. The Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH ROM, though being a very modern design, features a wonderful bokeh with remarkable smooth transition from in focus to out of focus areas, a very valuable asset for people liking this classical ingredient of aesthetic beauty of image, since many of the most up-to-date Leica R lenses both apochromatic or sporting aspheric elements render an extraordinary image quality regarding power of resolution, contrast, accuracy of colours, ability to capture the most hidden details and so forth, but often deliver a steeper transition from in focus to blurred areas, something which began in1975 with the launching into market of Walter Mandler´s Apo-Telyt-R 180 mm f/3.4, though I think it doesn´t matter at all.
They are simply two different approaches to tackle the out of focus areas and the subsequent bokeh-aji tasting.
As to the performance in each focal length setting, though the image quality rendered by the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ROM is superb from 28 mm to 90 mm, this ultramodern zoom has been optimized for the focal lengths of 50 mm, 75 mm and 90 mm.
It couldn´t be other way, because it´s not possible to optimise such an extraordinary optical design zoom for cum laude levels at all the focal lengths.
At 28 mm, image quality at f/2.8 is superb in the center and acceptably good in the corners, though from f/4 on the uniformity and optical performance on the whole frame improve significantly.
Falloff values are around 2.3 diaphragm and distortion in barrel around 2.8%.
At 35 mm, image quality at f/2.8 is superb in the center and very good in the corners. Vignetting is spectacularly low, around 0.2 %, and distortion levels are also negligible, around 0.8%. From f/4 on, optical performance is really impressive on the whole image surface.
At 50 mm, at f/3.5 (the widest opening feasible at this focal length), image quality is impressively high, and from f/4 on it features an incredible definition, contrast and capturing even of the most minute details, in my opinion approaching the quality of the Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH at f/4, however incredible it may seem. And it even improves something on stopping to f/5.6. I can´t undestand this huge level of optical performance in a zoom, and I don´t know how Leica has been able to do this with a zoom, but to observe this in a 30 x 40 cm enlargement made with Fuji Acros black and white 35 mm film has been a very awesome experience. Vignetting and distortion are non existent to practical effects.
A very odd thing. I think to have seen making pictures of different subjects under various light conditions that at 50 mm this tremendous zoom renders an optical performance matching the best 50s both in the Leica M and R assortment of standard lenses, but I don´t know the explanation for it, difficult to believe but true.
At 75 mm and the f/4 widest possible aperture, image quality is again superlative, even matching the one rendered by the Canon FD 85 mm f/1,2 L and the autofocus Canon EF 85 mm f/1.2L.
In my viewpoint, this is incedible, in the border of the out of parameters performance for a zoom. And once again I can´t explain it.
Even I have doubts that Walter Mandler´s jewel Summilux-M 75 mm f/1.4 or the Summicron-M 75 mm f/2 ASPH can improve clearly from f/4 the tremendous image quality delivered by the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 f/2.8-4.5 ASPH ROM zoom at 75 mm at the same aperture, with the added bonus that both falloff and distortion levels can´t be observed in 30 x 40 cm enlargements of photographs made at this setting of 75 mm at f/4, f/5.6 and f/8, the three apertures rendering a very similar level of incredible high quality of image.
And at the 90 mm setting and f/4.5 (the widest aperture obtainable with this focal length) things go on in a similar way as with the 50 and 75 mm choices: incredibly high image quality, both in the center and corners and no distortion or vignetting in 30 x 40 cm enlargements made on photographic paper.
Bearing in mind that often even the best professional zooms feature observable levels of pincushion distortion (the barrel one appears in the shortest range of focal lengths) in the longest settings of their range generally between 70 and 80 mm, it´s incredible that the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH ROM at 90mm hasn´t got any distortion and I don´t dare to express my opinion on this because simply I don´t know the explanation for it.
If Leica would be able to design a standard autofocus professional zoom with a similar performance to this manual focusing Vario-Elmarit 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5, to attach it to the body of the new top professional AF Leica R10, probably it would make almost unnecessary any distortion correction by means of internal software, at least between 35 and 90 mm focal lengths of the zoom.
Another view of the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 Aspherical ROM, showing its great ergonomics and imposing aspect.
Lying view of the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 Aspherical ROM, the best professional standard zoom in the world for full frame reflex cameras currently in production.
The building quality is extraordinary, having been manufactured with the best possible materials and all kind of frictions have been reduced to incredible levels through a new breakthrough system which enables a velvety focusing. Also top-notch the petal shaped lens hood and its firm attachment to the objective, something often overlooked even in modern professional lenses.
The focusing and distance fluted rings are also made with impressive accuracy and allow a very good grab by the photographer.
Besides, the f/4.5 maximum aperture is only at the 90 mm setting, while for the rest of focal ranges we´ve got:
- 28 mm: f/2.8
- 35 mm: f/2.8
- 50 mm: f/3.3
- 70 mm: f/3.8
On the other hand, the aspherical technology applied allows extraordinary correction in edges and corners of the field. Incredibly, even at full apertures, the edge resolution is kept nearly as good as in the center, which brings about that stopping down is only needed to foster depth of field.
Therefore, the Vario-Elmarit 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH ROM renders superb closeups and portraits at 50 mm, 70 mm and 90 mm, with excellent full frame sharpness from center to corners, the remarkably flat field of this luxurious zoom and its aspheric correction being very important to be able to accomplish so great results in the shortest distances, together with an absence of blendendifferenz during zooming.
On the other hand, Pentax had already studied very deeply the chances of designing a 28-90 mm zoom featuring superb image quality, but it dawned on them quickly than a maximum aperture wider than f/5.6 in the focal settings between 70 and 80 mm rendering top-notch performance both in center and corners was a tremendously exacting optical tour de force, so they did their best building the SMC-FA Pentax 28-90 mm f/3.5-5.6 (a very good zoom, though sporting low luminosity), but when they made the SMC-FA 24-90 mm f/3.5-4.5 trying to increase the maximum aperture in the longest focal length they realized that there was a heavy toll in terms of optical performance and image quality, a rather difficult hindrance to avoid without investing great quantities of money in the design and a very strenuous research effort if they wanted to achieve the preserving of the same optical quality obtained at f/4.5 in the 80 and 90 mm settings with the former zoom lens than at f/5.6 in the 80 and 90 mm settings with the latter one.
Therefore, Leica has attained a truly amazing optical and mechanical feat with the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 Aspherical ROM, undoubtedly currently the best zoom lens in production on earth, taking to the limit the pioneering studies (deserving accolade) by Pentax regarding the possibilities of manufacturing professional zooms in the range 28-90 mm and boasting as wide aperture as possible in the long reach.
Leica has fulfilled it, greatly increasing the luminosity in the shortest range (f/2.8 instead of f/3.5) and the long end (f/4.5 instead of f/5.6) and attaining a much better quality of image, lack of ditortion and very low levels of vignetting than the aforementioned SMC-FA Pentax 28-90 mm f/3.5-5.6, the best 28-90 mm zoom lens in the Japanese firm line-up.
Inevitably, a question arises: What about dreaming a 28-90 mm f/2.8 or even a 24-90 mm f/2.8?
Well, in my opinion, in the current state of science and optical expertise, it would be feasible if Leica (and some Japanese firms) make up their minds in this respect, but there would be manifold drawbacks: the designing effort by optical designers would be very high, the weight and size would also be fairly excessive, almost impossible a price under 6,000 euros if a very good image quality at all apertures is strived after, and 8,000 euros if anybody tries to implement (independently of the brand deciding it) Leica R or Olympus Zuiko Digital
Superprofessional reflex lenses parameters (lack of distortion, almost zero vignetting even at full aperture and very good optical performance both in the center and corners).
So, imho it would be almost unbearable trying to put such a hypothetical professional zoom 24/28-90 mm with a constant f/2 maximum aperture throughout its whole range of focal lengths delivering superb quality at all f stops, but very probably these kind of zooms will be made in near future, even perhaps with interesting prices, not astronomical but inevitably expensive, because science moves forward in quantic leaps and usually prices drop significantly (within the pricey) once a new technology or kind of lens appears in the market and other firms adhere to the new concept.
The design of all Leica lenses is presided over by the use of high refractive indexes and low dispersion glasses. As a matter of fact, exclusive Leica developed Extra Low Dispersion ED glass is not only used in the telephoto domain, but also from wideangles to zoom lenses, since the very remarkable Leica ED glass optimises brilliant colour results. And the basis from which all Leica R lenses (and M) are built are exclusive optical formulas from its own.
Elmarit-R 24 mm f/2.8. Launched into market in 1974, this is a very good wideangle lens, though not stellar. It features 9 elements (four of them cemented in pairs and one floating which greatly fosters a high quality of image in the nearest focusing distances) and a weight of only 400 g.A very compact and versatile lens boasting remarkable sharpness and contrast in the center, even at full aperture, though to get good image quality in the corners is necessary stopping down to f/5.6.
Vignetting is around 1.9 at full aperture. Its minimum focusing distance is 30 cm.
This is a very useful wideangle for dynamic photojournalism when making pictures inside confined spaces, generating amazing pictures with remarkable perspectives, but at the same time, they don´t seem to have been made with a superwide lens, in spite of the fact that its barrel distortion is perhaps a bit excessive to Leica standards.
In my opinion, there are some stellar performers of other brands beating the optical performance of the Elmarit-R 24 mm f/2.8 in this focal range like the manual focusing Canon FD 24 mm f/1.4 S.S.C Aspherical, manual focusing Canon FD 24 mm f/1.4L (featuring 10 elements in 8 groups and an aspherical element) both of them with the aspherical lens as the front element to minimize spherical aberration and the typical barrel distortion common in the super wideangles, the manual focusing Minolta MD Rokkor-X 24 mm f/2.8, the Nikkor 24 mm f/2.8 in its three versions (manual focusing AI, AIS and AF D) featuring 9 elements in 9 groups, 7 diaphragm blades, CRC floating element for high quality of image at the nearest focusing distances and the famous Nikon Integrated Coating avoiding flare and ghost and providing very good colour balance, probably the super wideangle with best price/quality ratio in history, and above all the superb current manual focusing Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 25 mm f/2.8 ZM (available in F bayonet, K bayonet and M42) which is in my opinion the world reference in this focal length, boasting 10 elements in 8 groups, a minimum focusing distance of 17 cm and clearly delivering the best image quality on earth in the 24/25 mm domain for full format reflex cameras, without forgetting the legendary 8 elements Distagon 25 mm f/2.8 from 1963.
Elmarit-R 28 mm f/2.8 ROM. A stellar performer and currently in 2008 the best lens in the world in its focal length and maximum aperture in terms of power of resolution, contrast and superb capturing of details and textures of the subjects on the whole image surface, both in the center and corners, even at full aperture f/2.8, reaching its optimum image quality at f/4 and f/5.6.It was launched into market in 1994 and features 8 elements in 7 groups, with a floating element which greatly helps to attain an impressive quality of image also in the nearest focusing distances.
A highly versatile and compact lens, delivering exceptional image quality throughout its focusing range, from 30 cm to infinite, with a very low weight of 310 g. The correction of aberrations is absolutely top-notch and it sports a high quality sliding lens hood.
Besides, Leica has managed to reduce the vignetting figures of this wideangle lens to almost zero, even at full f/2.8 aperture in the extreme corners!, which is another optical feat fulfilled by the legendary German firm. Pay attention to the wonderful lens shade made with top-notch quality materials.
The also formidable and most recently introduced manual focusing Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 28 mm f/2.8 (even more compact with a weight of 280 g, featuring 7 elements in 7 groups and an even shorter minimum focusing distance of 25 cm) is in my opinion the only one current 28 mm which can approach the optical performance of the Elmarit-R 28 mm f/2.8 ROM.
Inverted image of an Elmarit-R 28 mm f/2.8 ROM, showing the splendid finishing and mechanizing of the metal Leica R mount and the scalloped manual focusing ring.Likewise impressive the accuracy and security of attachment between lens and hood, very different for instance to the flimsy and very loose attachment between the excellent Canon EF 24-70 2.8 L and its big plastic hood, a detail to improve in that great Japanese professional zoom.
Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH ROM, a stellar performer and currently in 2008 the second best professional standard zoom lens in the world (only beaten by the Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70 mm f/2.8 ASPH), featuring 11 elements (2 of them being aspheric, the first one and the last one) in 8 groups, a weight of 740 g and a minimum focusing distance of 60 cm.It is true that a constant full aperture f/2.8 would have been more desirable, but because of the very wide range of focal lengths between wideangle 28 mm and medium teleobjective 90 mm, it would have brought about a brutal increase in dimensions, bulk and weight, together with a terrifying increase in the final price if trying to keep the same impressive image quality.
The Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH ROM clearly beats the optical performance of the excellent Canon 24-70 mm f/2.8 L and the new and superb Nikkor AF-S 24-70 mm f/2.8 G ED and the fabulous Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 24-70 mm f/2.8, also surpassing them in reach, but it isn´t less true that the constant f/2.8 aperture between 28 and 70 mm of the Nikon, Canon and Carl Zeiss professional f/2.8 zooms together with the very useful 24 mm focal length, in my opinion give them the upper hand in photojournalism, though things would level very much if the new upcoming top professional digital full format autofocus Leica R10 renders top-notch image quality and lack of noise between iso 1000 and 2500 approximately, because regarding optical and mechanical performance, brutal image quality and lack of distortion in all its focal lengths, the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ROM is currently in 2008 the best professional standard zoom in the world, only beaten by the Vario-Elmarit-R 35-70 mm f/2.8 ASPH ROM which is a world apart in itself, but with a much more limited focal range.
However, it´s very important to bear in mind that to stretch a zoom design to the focal length of 24 mm increases the designing difficulties in a geometrical way and makes more difficult to get a superb image quality throughout the whole range of focal lengths at full aperture (including the 24 mm setting), with which the choice of the quoted top-notch zooms made by Nikon, Canon and Carl Zeiss is evidently another very good option.
The Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH ROM is an absolutely superb lens throughout the whole range of focal lengths and apertures, delivering extraordinary image quality with impressive sharpness and contrast, apart from boasting very little distortion in either end (the highest figures in this regard being in the wideangle 28 mm setting with around 2.8 % in barrel) and great bokeh, competing without problems with the best 28 mm, 35 mm, 50 mm, 60 mm, 75 mm, 80 mm and 90 mm primes between f/2.8 and f/5.6 but with the great advantages and versatility for the photographer of being able to instantly select all the focal lengths between 28 mm and 90 mm, apart from saving a lot of weight and space, though in the current state of science primes are unbeatable very clearly between f/1 and f/2, and slightly at f/2.8, though things are progressively equalling in this aperture very used by professional photographers and shutterbugs.
On the other hand, this superb zoom lens features a breakthrough and innovative device which guarantees an absence of friction to practical effects of the mechanical components during movements. This way, the photographer can relish a velvety choice of distances and focal lengths.
Besides, it is of maximum significance to bear in mind that under normal conditions a zoom with the out of this world optical performance and image quality rendered by the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH ROM (which also features a very good ergonomics) would have probably needed between 18 and 20 elements plus a high number of groups in order to properly implement the optical design.
But Leica has made a very strenuous effort and has managed to reduce the number of elements to only 11 elements and 8 groups, in my opinion one of the biggest optical feats in the history of photographic lenses for full frame reflex cameras, taking into account the very wide range of focal lengths, the tremendous image quality it delivers and the very interesting available maximum apertures between f/2.8 in the wideangle setting and f/4.5 in the 90 mm one, and everything with a very low weight of 740 g.
It should be likewise highlighted that Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH ROM has been optimised to render impressive image quality both on the center and corners of the image surface, which it achieves at all focal lengths and diaphragms, and these very uniform and balanced gorgeous optical performance beats in this respect most of the best primes, whose optical formula has been designed mainly optimising center performance.
But there´s more. The Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH ROM, though being a very modern design, features a wonderful bokeh with remarkable smooth transition from in focus to out of focus areas, a very valuable asset for people liking this classical ingredient of aesthetic beauty of image, since many of the most up-to-date Leica R lenses both apochromatic or sporting aspheric elements render an extraordinary image quality regarding power of resolution, contrast, accuracy of colours, ability to capture the most hidden details and so forth, but often deliver a steeper transition from in focus to blurred areas, something which began in1975 with the launching into market of Walter Mandler´s Apo-Telyt-R 180 mm f/3.4, though I think it doesn´t matter at all.
They are simply two different approaches to tackle the out of focus areas and the subsequent bokeh-aji tasting.
As to the performance in each focal length setting, though the image quality rendered by the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ROM is superb from 28 mm to 90 mm, this ultramodern zoom has been optimized for the focal lengths of 50 mm, 75 mm and 90 mm.
It couldn´t be other way, because it´s not possible to optimise such an extraordinary optical design zoom for cum laude levels at all the focal lengths.
At 28 mm, image quality at f/2.8 is superb in the center and acceptably good in the corners, though from f/4 on the uniformity and optical performance on the whole frame improve significantly.
Falloff values are around 2.3 diaphragm and distortion in barrel around 2.8%.
At 35 mm, image quality at f/2.8 is superb in the center and very good in the corners. Vignetting is spectacularly low, around 0.2 %, and distortion levels are also negligible, around 0.8%. From f/4 on, optical performance is really impressive on the whole image surface.
At 50 mm, at f/3.5 (the widest opening feasible at this focal length), image quality is impressively high, and from f/4 on it features an incredible definition, contrast and capturing even of the most minute details, in my opinion approaching the quality of the Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH at f/4, however incredible it may seem. And it even improves something on stopping to f/5.6. I can´t undestand this huge level of optical performance in a zoom, and I don´t know how Leica has been able to do this with a zoom, but to observe this in a 30 x 40 cm enlargement made with Fuji Acros black and white 35 mm film has been a very awesome experience. Vignetting and distortion are non existent to practical effects.
A very odd thing. I think to have seen making pictures of different subjects under various light conditions that at 50 mm this tremendous zoom renders an optical performance matching the best 50s both in the Leica M and R assortment of standard lenses, but I don´t know the explanation for it, difficult to believe but true.
At 75 mm and the f/4 widest possible aperture, image quality is again superlative, even matching the one rendered by the Canon FD 85 mm f/1,2 L and the autofocus Canon EF 85 mm f/1.2L.
In my viewpoint, this is incedible, in the border of the out of parameters performance for a zoom. And once again I can´t explain it.
Even I have doubts that Walter Mandler´s jewel Summilux-M 75 mm f/1.4 or the Summicron-M 75 mm f/2 ASPH can improve clearly from f/4 the tremendous image quality delivered by the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 f/2.8-4.5 ASPH ROM zoom at 75 mm at the same aperture, with the added bonus that both falloff and distortion levels can´t be observed in 30 x 40 cm enlargements of photographs made at this setting of 75 mm at f/4, f/5.6 and f/8, the three apertures rendering a very similar level of incredible high quality of image.
And at the 90 mm setting and f/4.5 (the widest aperture obtainable with this focal length) things go on in a similar way as with the 50 and 75 mm choices: incredibly high image quality, both in the center and corners and no distortion or vignetting in 30 x 40 cm enlargements made on photographic paper.
Bearing in mind that often even the best professional zooms feature observable levels of pincushion distortion (the barrel one appears in the shortest range of focal lengths) in the longest settings of their range generally between 70 and 80 mm, it´s incredible that the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH ROM at 90mm hasn´t got any distortion and I don´t dare to express my opinion on this because simply I don´t know the explanation for it.
If Leica would be able to design a standard autofocus professional zoom with a similar performance to this manual focusing Vario-Elmarit 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5, to attach it to the body of the new top professional AF Leica R10, probably it would make almost unnecessary any distortion correction by means of internal software, at least between 35 and 90 mm focal lengths of the zoom.
Another view of the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 Aspherical ROM, showing its great ergonomics and imposing aspect.
Lying view of the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 Aspherical ROM, the best professional standard zoom in the world for full frame reflex cameras currently in production.The building quality is extraordinary, having been manufactured with the best possible materials and all kind of frictions have been reduced to incredible levels through a new breakthrough system which enables a velvety focusing. Also top-notch the petal shaped lens hood and its firm attachment to the objective, something often overlooked even in modern professional lenses.
The focusing and distance fluted rings are also made with impressive accuracy and allow a very good grab by the photographer.
Besides, the f/4.5 maximum aperture is only at the 90 mm setting, while for the rest of focal ranges we´ve got:
- 28 mm: f/2.8
- 35 mm: f/2.8
- 50 mm: f/3.3
- 70 mm: f/3.8
On the other hand, the aspherical technology applied allows extraordinary correction in edges and corners of the field. Incredibly, even at full apertures, the edge resolution is kept nearly as good as in the center, which brings about that stopping down is only needed to foster depth of field.
Therefore, the Vario-Elmarit 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH ROM renders superb closeups and portraits at 50 mm, 70 mm and 90 mm, with excellent full frame sharpness from center to corners, the remarkably flat field of this luxurious zoom and its aspheric correction being very important to be able to accomplish so great results in the shortest distances, together with an absence of blendendifferenz during zooming.
On the other hand, Pentax had already studied very deeply the chances of designing a 28-90 mm zoom featuring superb image quality, but it dawned on them quickly than a maximum aperture wider than f/5.6 in the focal settings between 70 and 80 mm rendering top-notch performance both in center and corners was a tremendously exacting optical tour de force, so they did their best building the SMC-FA Pentax 28-90 mm f/3.5-5.6 (a very good zoom, though sporting low luminosity), but when they made the SMC-FA 24-90 mm f/3.5-4.5 trying to increase the maximum aperture in the longest focal length they realized that there was a heavy toll in terms of optical performance and image quality, a rather difficult hindrance to avoid without investing great quantities of money in the design and a very strenuous research effort if they wanted to achieve the preserving of the same optical quality obtained at f/4.5 in the 80 and 90 mm settings with the former zoom lens than at f/5.6 in the 80 and 90 mm settings with the latter one.
Therefore, Leica has attained a truly amazing optical and mechanical feat with the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 Aspherical ROM, undoubtedly currently the best zoom lens in production on earth, taking to the limit the pioneering studies (deserving accolade) by Pentax regarding the possibilities of manufacturing professional zooms in the range 28-90 mm and boasting as wide aperture as possible in the long reach.
Leica has fulfilled it, greatly increasing the luminosity in the shortest range (f/2.8 instead of f/3.5) and the long end (f/4.5 instead of f/5.6) and attaining a much better quality of image, lack of ditortion and very low levels of vignetting than the aforementioned SMC-FA Pentax 28-90 mm f/3.5-5.6, the best 28-90 mm zoom lens in the Japanese firm line-up.
Inevitably, a question arises: What about dreaming a 28-90 mm f/2.8 or even a 24-90 mm f/2.8?
Well, in my opinion, in the current state of science and optical expertise, it would be feasible if Leica (and some Japanese firms) make up their minds in this respect, but there would be manifold drawbacks: the designing effort by optical designers would be very high, the weight and size would also be fairly excessive, almost impossible a price under 6,000 euros if a very good image quality at all apertures is strived after, and 8,000 euros if anybody tries to implement (independently of the brand deciding it) Leica R or Olympus Zuiko Digital
Superprofessional reflex lenses parameters (lack of distortion, almost zero vignetting even at full aperture and very good optical performance both in the center and corners).
So, imho it would be almost unbearable trying to put such a hypothetical professional zoom 24/28-90 mm with a constant f/2 maximum aperture throughout its whole range of focal lengths delivering superb quality at all f stops, but very probably these kind of zooms will be made in near future, even perhaps with interesting prices, not astronomical but inevitably expensive, because science moves forward in quantic leaps and usually prices drop significantly (within the pricey) once a new technology or kind of lens appears in the market and other firms adhere to the new concept.
The Leica R Optical Design is clearly the world reference of Optical Design and Standard of High Performance, with more than 50 parameters with tolerances up to two thousands of a millimetre which must be balanced and calculated against each other during the design of each lens. In order to manage such complexities, Leica world class optical engineers make use of computers featuring very up-to-date and sophisticated software developed by the legendary German firm.
Semilateral view of the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 Aspherical ROM resting on its front cap.
Back view of the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2,8-4.5 Aspherical ROM resting on its front cap. You can see the gorgeous accuracy of assembly and mechanical thoroughness of the Leica R mount, together with the golden ROM contacts.
Summilux-R 35 mm f/1.4, a superluminous lens delivering superb image quality and currently in 2008 the best lens in the world in its focal length and maximum aperture for full frame reflex cameras, in my opinion with two other great 35s approaching it in optical performance: the formidable manual focusing Nikkor 35 mm f/1.4 AIS whose original design dates back to 1969 (sporting 9 elements in 7 groups with a floating element to fulfil the close range correction, along with CRC multicoating and extraordinary mechanical quality) which had its halcyon days during seventies and eighties and which goes on now in 2008 being a wondrous performer, and without forgetting the excellent Canon EF 35 mm f/1.4 L ( sporting 11 elements, one of them being aspherical, in 9 groups and a tremendously quick autofocus, together with a floating system for the nearest distances) and the Minolta AF 35 mm f/1.4, another great 35 mm lens featuring a great image quality (though not reaching the impressive image quality rendered by the two 35 mm quoted super primes from Nikon and Canon regarding definition, sharpness and contrast),10 elements in 8 groups, 9 diaphragm blades but beating them in range of tonalities, outstanding capturing of subtle colour differences and an impressive bokeh (in this respect it matches the Summilux-R 35 mm f/1.4) resembling the one produced by the best portrait telephotos between 75 and 100 mm, something very uncommon in a 35 mm lens.
The Summilux-R 35 mm f/1.4, launched into market in 1984 features 10 elements in 9 groups, a weight of 690 g, a minimum focusing distance of 50 cm, and is a highly suitable lens to make handheld pictures under very low luminous conditions and a great tool for photojournalists, as well as boasting an amazing resistance to flare and all kind of reflections, in back-lighted scenes or where there are strong light sources in the image area, apart from attaining also top-notch image quality at the nearest distances thanks to its floating element specially created for it.
Its distortion is almost non existent and at full aperture f/1.4 falloff is around 2.3 stops, with global quality of image being very good at f/1.4 (except in the corners where it features a certain degree of softness), superb at f/2 and f/2.8 (with impressive capturing of details, gorgeous contrast and remarkable evenness of optical performance on the whole image surface) and exceptional between f/4 and f/5.6 where the lens reaches its zenith, boasting exceptional power of resolution, crispness and contrast.
This is one of the lenses which epitomizes to great extent the aesthetic chance of implementation of selective sharpness with the further benefit of a highly bright viewfinder image allowed by the very wide f/1.4 maximum aperture.
Frontal view of the Summilux-R 35 mm f/1.4, a lens which has been greatly corrected for delivering maximum contrast at low light levels. Besides, light sources in the picture don´t produce flare and coma has been virtually eliminated.
Another view of the Summilux-R 35 mm f/1.4, one more stellar performer in the Leica R line-up of lenses for full format reflex cameras. As usual in Leica, the best available noble materials, specially metals, have been used in the manufacture of the lens barrel.
Impressive the accuracy and grab of the slightly scalloped focusing ring whose operating is silky smooth, epitomizing the legendary ´Leica Feeling´.
Also visible are the classical scales of depth of field and distances, very useful for discerning photographers. On top you can see the built-in extensible lens hood.
Vario-Apo-Elmarit-R 70-180 mm f/2.8, currently in 2008 the best f/2-8 maximum aperture medium telezoom in the range 70-180 / 70-200 / 80-200 in the world for full format reflex cameras, beating in optical performance the superb Canon EF 70-200 mm f/2.8 L (18 elements in 15 groups), the Nikon 80-200 mm f/2.8 AF-D (16 elements in 11 groups), the Nikon 80-200 AF-D (16 elements in 11 groups), the Nikon 80-200 mm AF-S (18 elements in 14 groups) and the Nikon 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR (21 elements in 15 groups) and the SAL 70-200 f/2.8 G (19 elements in 16 groups) for the APS-size CCD digital sensor of the Sony Alpha A-100.
Therefore, this supremacy of the Vario-Apo-Elmarit-R 70-180 mm f/2.8 in terms of optical performance and brutally high performance rendered is in my opinion something for which Leica deserves a lot of praise, since the rest of quoted professional medium tele zoom lenses made by Canon, Nikon and Sony are very top-notch designs delivering impressive image quality, specially the Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L (in its two versions, normal and IS, the most widespread medium professional telephoto zoom among pros) and the Nikon 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR, two authentic monsters of optical performance and very high image quality delivered, whose purchase is evidently recommended.
The Vario-Apo-Elmarit-R 70-180 mm f/2.8, introduced in 1995, sporting 13 elements in 10 groups and a weight of 1870 g, is a revolutionary design which has been considered as a milestone in the development of the variable focal length objectives.
The building of this Leica R optical and mechanical super tour de force features a truly apochromatic zoom rendering a tremendously high optical performance matching the best primes (and sometimes beating them) throughout its whole range of focal lengths from 70 mm to 180 mm, even at full aperture, where it excels in extraordinary sharpness and contrast and the wiping out of aberrations, specially coma and astigmatism to negligible levels in practical situations.
The minimum focusing distance is 1, 7 m. On the other hand, the two separate adjustment rings for the focusing and the selection of focal length, ease the choice of the correct framing of the subject, with the added profit of a very sturdy rotating mount for tripod which sport special click stops for vertical and horizontal pictures.
It also features an internal focusing system optimising the image quality in the shortest focusing distances.
This absolutely top-notch zoom is another of the Leica R jewels which epitomizes the strenuous efforts made by the legendary German firm to get the highest possible level of definition of motifs outlines, a very decisive factor for the final sharpness and acutance of the image, as well as excelling in the high contrast and clear differentiation even of intricate colour gradations at all the focal lengths available and across the entire picture area up to the close-up range.
Its photographic possibilities are almost boundless: sports, wild nature, fashion photography, portraits, reportages in which a certain distance to the subject is required, etc. Vignetting is almost zero at all the focal lengths and f stops and the same happens with distortion, except in the longest and shortest settings of 180 mm and 70 mm (slight but observable, both in pincushion and barrel respectively).
Flare has been incredibly minimized (in the same way as happens with the Vario- Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH, it very probably contains the best of the best available multicoatings in the internal elements, because this Numantine antireflection ability is on the brink of reaching the out of parameters domain) and the capturing of textures and most minute details is simply astounding with a very uniform evenness of tremendous optical performance on the whole image surface and all of the available focal lengths, with only a very little decrease of quality in the extreme corners at full aperture, specially between 120 and 180 mm.
On four 50 x 70 cm enlargements on photographic papers made from B & W Rollei Superpan 200 and Fuji Reala 100 negatives of two different subjects produced with a Leica R9 and a Vario-Apo-Elmarit-R 70-180 mm f/2.8 in the focal lengths of 70 mm and 150 mm at f/4 and f/8 on robust Manfrotto tripod I´ve seen that image quality is bigger at f/4 than at f/8.
In both cases, image quality is incredibly high, but better at f/4. This is in my viewpoint a great optical feat, but I don´t know how Leica has managed to attain such an amazing thing.
The Vario-Apo-Elmarit-R 70-180 mm f/2.8 is widely considered as the best zoom lens designed in the history of photography, a super tour de force objective featuring a very complex optical formula with nothing less than 12 different optical glasses (including five with anomalous partial dispersion).
If the upcoming professional autofocus Leica R10 full format camera features a digital sensor delivering very good image quality between iso 1000 and 2500, the Vario-Apo-Elmarit-R 70-180 mm f/2.8 could become a tremendous weapon for making handheld shots in the vast majority of conceivable photographic contexts, though so as to draw all of its potential and incredible optical performance and image quality the use of a monopod or a tripod together with the suitable techniques are the best choice.
Another view of the out of this world Vario-Apo-Elmarit-R 70-180 mm f/2.8 in which we can see the very high quality and sturdy rotating tripod base boasting special click stops to make both vertical and horizontal photographies, a very useful device for a number of photographic genres in which is better to have the camera and lens on as much stable a support as possible.
On the other hand, the appearance of this luxurious zoom is highly beautiful and spectacular, , boasting an impressive engineering and mechanical construction which allows a steady professional use for many decades under the toughest contexts.
On the left of the image: Rolf Fricke, a living legend in the history of Leica and great friend of the Optical Mozart Walter Mandler since fifties. He was Cofounder of the Leica Historical Society of America in 1968, Founder of the Leica Historical Society of United Kingdom in 1969, and Founder of the Leica Historica Deutschland in 1975, with the author of this article.
Rolf Fricke, also a living legend in the History of Kodak, is currently one of the most expert collectors of Leica in the world and a great authority on Leica cameras and lenses.
For many years he was Director of Marketing and Communications of Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester (New York).
Likewise, he was President of the LHSA during the early years following the mythical starting 1969 LCI Gathering.
His performance as Master of Ceremonies inside the Dryden Theatre at the George Eastman House Museum during the 39th Annual Meeting of the LHSA was absolutely unforgettable.
He also presented the Eulogy for Walter Mandler during his Memorial Services after his death on April 21th 2005
Summicron-R 90 mm f/2, a very top quality lens rendering high contrast, optimal sharpness and extraordinary power of resolution, also taking advantage of its compact size and high speed which makes it a very suitable lens for photojournalism, portrait and candid photography.
It features 5 elements in 4 groups, a weight of 520 g and a minimum focusing distance of 70 cm.
This lens was designed by Walter Mandler in Midlands (Ontario), and its performance goes between very good but a bit soft at full aperture f/2, superb at f/2.8 and f/4 and stellar from f/5.6.
Notwithstanding, it´s very important to bear in mind that the quoted slight softness at full aperture was something deliberately introduced by the Wizard of Midlands in the optical formula so as to attain the best feasible portraits with out of focus backgrounds minimizing all kind of defects or imperfections in skin and also photojournalism pictures in which is better to reduce strong or very strong contrast environments.
Evenness of optical performance from f/2.8 is superb on a great percentage of the image surface, from center to corners (at f/2 the edges quality drops a bit because of the previously explained reasons).
Unlike designs like the Apo-Telyt-R 180 mm f/3.4, Mandler optimised the optical performances of the Summicron-R 90 mm f/2 for medium and specially short distances. In spite of being a classical non aspherical almost 40 years old design not reaching the super stellar performance of the very up-to-date and state of the art Apo-Summicron-R 90 mm f/2 ASPH regarding power of definition in lines per mm and contrast, there´s a significant percentage of photographers preferring the more vintage aesthetic image beauty of Mandler´s design, particularly at full aperture in portraiture, a domain in which Mandler´s lens goes on being the best performer in the world, delivering very artistic pictures and wonderful bokeh, beating the Apo- Summicron-R 90 mm f/2 ASPH in this regard, albeit not getting the latter´s so tremendously biting sharp images.
At full aperture Summicron-R 90 mm f/2´s vignetting value is around 1.6 diaphragm. ROM contacts can be attached by Leica.
Semilateral view of the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 Aspherical ROM resting on its front cap.
Back view of the Vario-Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2,8-4.5 Aspherical ROM resting on its front cap. You can see the gorgeous accuracy of assembly and mechanical thoroughness of the Leica R mount, together with the golden ROM contacts.
Summilux-R 35 mm f/1.4, a superluminous lens delivering superb image quality and currently in 2008 the best lens in the world in its focal length and maximum aperture for full frame reflex cameras, in my opinion with two other great 35s approaching it in optical performance: the formidable manual focusing Nikkor 35 mm f/1.4 AIS whose original design dates back to 1969 (sporting 9 elements in 7 groups with a floating element to fulfil the close range correction, along with CRC multicoating and extraordinary mechanical quality) which had its halcyon days during seventies and eighties and which goes on now in 2008 being a wondrous performer, and without forgetting the excellent Canon EF 35 mm f/1.4 L ( sporting 11 elements, one of them being aspherical, in 9 groups and a tremendously quick autofocus, together with a floating system for the nearest distances) and the Minolta AF 35 mm f/1.4, another great 35 mm lens featuring a great image quality (though not reaching the impressive image quality rendered by the two 35 mm quoted super primes from Nikon and Canon regarding definition, sharpness and contrast),10 elements in 8 groups, 9 diaphragm blades but beating them in range of tonalities, outstanding capturing of subtle colour differences and an impressive bokeh (in this respect it matches the Summilux-R 35 mm f/1.4) resembling the one produced by the best portrait telephotos between 75 and 100 mm, something very uncommon in a 35 mm lens.The Summilux-R 35 mm f/1.4, launched into market in 1984 features 10 elements in 9 groups, a weight of 690 g, a minimum focusing distance of 50 cm, and is a highly suitable lens to make handheld pictures under very low luminous conditions and a great tool for photojournalists, as well as boasting an amazing resistance to flare and all kind of reflections, in back-lighted scenes or where there are strong light sources in the image area, apart from attaining also top-notch image quality at the nearest distances thanks to its floating element specially created for it.
Its distortion is almost non existent and at full aperture f/1.4 falloff is around 2.3 stops, with global quality of image being very good at f/1.4 (except in the corners where it features a certain degree of softness), superb at f/2 and f/2.8 (with impressive capturing of details, gorgeous contrast and remarkable evenness of optical performance on the whole image surface) and exceptional between f/4 and f/5.6 where the lens reaches its zenith, boasting exceptional power of resolution, crispness and contrast.
This is one of the lenses which epitomizes to great extent the aesthetic chance of implementation of selective sharpness with the further benefit of a highly bright viewfinder image allowed by the very wide f/1.4 maximum aperture.
Frontal view of the Summilux-R 35 mm f/1.4, a lens which has been greatly corrected for delivering maximum contrast at low light levels. Besides, light sources in the picture don´t produce flare and coma has been virtually eliminated.
Another view of the Summilux-R 35 mm f/1.4, one more stellar performer in the Leica R line-up of lenses for full format reflex cameras. As usual in Leica, the best available noble materials, specially metals, have been used in the manufacture of the lens barrel.
Impressive the accuracy and grab of the slightly scalloped focusing ring whose operating is silky smooth, epitomizing the legendary ´Leica Feeling´.
Also visible are the classical scales of depth of field and distances, very useful for discerning photographers. On top you can see the built-in extensible lens hood.
Vario-Apo-Elmarit-R 70-180 mm f/2.8, currently in 2008 the best f/2-8 maximum aperture medium telezoom in the range 70-180 / 70-200 / 80-200 in the world for full format reflex cameras, beating in optical performance the superb Canon EF 70-200 mm f/2.8 L (18 elements in 15 groups), the Nikon 80-200 mm f/2.8 AF-D (16 elements in 11 groups), the Nikon 80-200 AF-D (16 elements in 11 groups), the Nikon 80-200 mm AF-S (18 elements in 14 groups) and the Nikon 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR (21 elements in 15 groups) and the SAL 70-200 f/2.8 G (19 elements in 16 groups) for the APS-size CCD digital sensor of the Sony Alpha A-100.Therefore, this supremacy of the Vario-Apo-Elmarit-R 70-180 mm f/2.8 in terms of optical performance and brutally high performance rendered is in my opinion something for which Leica deserves a lot of praise, since the rest of quoted professional medium tele zoom lenses made by Canon, Nikon and Sony are very top-notch designs delivering impressive image quality, specially the Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L (in its two versions, normal and IS, the most widespread medium professional telephoto zoom among pros) and the Nikon 70-200 mm f/2.8 VR, two authentic monsters of optical performance and very high image quality delivered, whose purchase is evidently recommended.
The Vario-Apo-Elmarit-R 70-180 mm f/2.8, introduced in 1995, sporting 13 elements in 10 groups and a weight of 1870 g, is a revolutionary design which has been considered as a milestone in the development of the variable focal length objectives.
The building of this Leica R optical and mechanical super tour de force features a truly apochromatic zoom rendering a tremendously high optical performance matching the best primes (and sometimes beating them) throughout its whole range of focal lengths from 70 mm to 180 mm, even at full aperture, where it excels in extraordinary sharpness and contrast and the wiping out of aberrations, specially coma and astigmatism to negligible levels in practical situations.
The minimum focusing distance is 1, 7 m. On the other hand, the two separate adjustment rings for the focusing and the selection of focal length, ease the choice of the correct framing of the subject, with the added profit of a very sturdy rotating mount for tripod which sport special click stops for vertical and horizontal pictures.
It also features an internal focusing system optimising the image quality in the shortest focusing distances.
This absolutely top-notch zoom is another of the Leica R jewels which epitomizes the strenuous efforts made by the legendary German firm to get the highest possible level of definition of motifs outlines, a very decisive factor for the final sharpness and acutance of the image, as well as excelling in the high contrast and clear differentiation even of intricate colour gradations at all the focal lengths available and across the entire picture area up to the close-up range.
Its photographic possibilities are almost boundless: sports, wild nature, fashion photography, portraits, reportages in which a certain distance to the subject is required, etc. Vignetting is almost zero at all the focal lengths and f stops and the same happens with distortion, except in the longest and shortest settings of 180 mm and 70 mm (slight but observable, both in pincushion and barrel respectively).
Flare has been incredibly minimized (in the same way as happens with the Vario- Elmarit-R 28-90 mm f/2.8-4.5 ASPH, it very probably contains the best of the best available multicoatings in the internal elements, because this Numantine antireflection ability is on the brink of reaching the out of parameters domain) and the capturing of textures and most minute details is simply astounding with a very uniform evenness of tremendous optical performance on the whole image surface and all of the available focal lengths, with only a very little decrease of quality in the extreme corners at full aperture, specially between 120 and 180 mm.
On four 50 x 70 cm enlargements on photographic papers made from B & W Rollei Superpan 200 and Fuji Reala 100 negatives of two different subjects produced with a Leica R9 and a Vario-Apo-Elmarit-R 70-180 mm f/2.8 in the focal lengths of 70 mm and 150 mm at f/4 and f/8 on robust Manfrotto tripod I´ve seen that image quality is bigger at f/4 than at f/8.
In both cases, image quality is incredibly high, but better at f/4. This is in my viewpoint a great optical feat, but I don´t know how Leica has managed to attain such an amazing thing.
The Vario-Apo-Elmarit-R 70-180 mm f/2.8 is widely considered as the best zoom lens designed in the history of photography, a super tour de force objective featuring a very complex optical formula with nothing less than 12 different optical glasses (including five with anomalous partial dispersion).
If the upcoming professional autofocus Leica R10 full format camera features a digital sensor delivering very good image quality between iso 1000 and 2500, the Vario-Apo-Elmarit-R 70-180 mm f/2.8 could become a tremendous weapon for making handheld shots in the vast majority of conceivable photographic contexts, though so as to draw all of its potential and incredible optical performance and image quality the use of a monopod or a tripod together with the suitable techniques are the best choice.
Another view of the out of this world Vario-Apo-Elmarit-R 70-180 mm f/2.8 in which we can see the very high quality and sturdy rotating tripod base boasting special click stops to make both vertical and horizontal photographies, a very useful device for a number of photographic genres in which is better to have the camera and lens on as much stable a support as possible.On the other hand, the appearance of this luxurious zoom is highly beautiful and spectacular, , boasting an impressive engineering and mechanical construction which allows a steady professional use for many decades under the toughest contexts.
On the left of the image: Rolf Fricke, a living legend in the history of Leica and great friend of the Optical Mozart Walter Mandler since fifties. He was Cofounder of the Leica Historical Society of America in 1968, Founder of the Leica Historical Society of United Kingdom in 1969, and Founder of the Leica Historica Deutschland in 1975, with the author of this article.Rolf Fricke, also a living legend in the History of Kodak, is currently one of the most expert collectors of Leica in the world and a great authority on Leica cameras and lenses.
For many years he was Director of Marketing and Communications of Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester (New York).
Likewise, he was President of the LHSA during the early years following the mythical starting 1969 LCI Gathering.
His performance as Master of Ceremonies inside the Dryden Theatre at the George Eastman House Museum during the 39th Annual Meeting of the LHSA was absolutely unforgettable.
He also presented the Eulogy for Walter Mandler during his Memorial Services after his death on April 21th 2005
From the beginning, Leica has always put great interest in achieving the best optical formulae feasible and that´s why they´re always making strenuous efforts to improve the calculating methods. And this is one of the most decisive reasons for the stunning performance of Leica R lenses. In fact, Leica was the first photographic firm in the world using electronic data processing during fifties to optimise its optical designs. At present, the lavish history of expertise and know-how amassed by Leica during a century is reflected in the wonderful Leica R lenses array, boasting the highest available image quality available in the world regarding the reflex market.
Summicron-R-50 mm f/2 second version, now in 2008 the best 50 mm f/2 lens in the world for full frame reflex cameras. Introduced in 1976, it features 6 elements in 4 groups, with one cemented pair. It is a very compact lens weighing 290 g and sporting a built-in extensible lens hood.
A very famous lens and one of the most remarkable masterpieces created by Walter Mandler in Midlands (Ontario), delivering an extraordinary image quality, even in the nearest focusing range of 50 cm.
Because of its very little size, low weight and a 41 mm length, it´s a high luminosity ideal travel lens able to render superb sharpness and definition power, along with high contrast and excellent resolution of the details, even at full aperture.
Previously, the Wizard of Midlands had designed in 1964 the Summicron-R-50 mm f/2 first version (which would be produced until 1976) featuring six elements with two cemented pairs.
Mandler had self imposed very strong criteria of cost savings and managed to achieve it through the use of two types of optical glass instead of the five of the 1957 Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 second version and replacing the superb but very expensive Lak9 optical glass with flint glass, improving at the same time the image quality, the acutance, the contrast, the flare reduction and the blendendifferenz.
But with this Summicron-R-50 mm f/2 second version from 1976, Mandler had a bigger budget and decided to take the Double Gauss optical scheme to the scientific limit of its possibilities, making use of a special sort of glass boasting a very high refractive index of 1.8 which had been previously used in the optical formula of the Noctilux-M 50 mm f/1.
This way, the genius Walter Mandler made a very wise combination of the use of a computer featuring Helmut Marx´s designed COMO program and an incredible variety of tricks and resources of its own to add its personal touch and striving to the utmost after balancing the oblique spherical aberration with third order aberrations (something extremely difficult at f/2), and fulfilled its task, even attaining a bettering of fine detail faithfulness and accuracy on a bigger area on a bigger area of the surface image at full aperture, including a significant percentage of the corners.
Besides, the prodigious Walter Mandler intentionally introduced 1.86 f stops vignetting figures at full aperture to maximize the reduction of distortion, stray light and coma.
On the other hand, this lens renders one of the most beautiful image aesthetics in the history of photography and is an authentic cornerstone in high quality photojournalism.
This Summicron-R-50 mm f/2 from 1976 is deemed to be almost impossible to beat using the Double Gauss scheme and without taking advantage of aspherical surfaces and is an absolutely top-notch world class referent of optical performance thirty two years after its launching into market, as well as delivering a superb accuracy in colour rendition and negligible almost zero barrel distortion, not detectable in 30 x 40 cm enlargements on photographic paper and pictures made with it show that famous Leica glow and feel.
Coma, vignetting ( only a very slight degree of falloff at f/2 ), astigmatism and curvature of field are almost non existent.
Inverted view of a Summicron-R-50 mm f/2 second version made in Canada, a lens excelling at rendering an impressively uniform contrast at full aperture on the whole image surface.
Besides, the overall build quality is superb. Both the barrel and the mount base, together with the rings for diaphragms and focusing, have been manufactured with highly strong metals and created to endure many decades of steady hard use.
On the other hand, the retractable built-in hood is very useful to prevent the entering of stray light hitting the front glass element.
A very compact all-around lens highly suitable for natural rendition of ample subjects.
Summilux-R 50 mm f/1.4 ROM, currently in 2008 the best 50 mm f/1.4 for full frame reflex cameras in the world. A truly Rolls-Royce standard lens introduced in 1998, being the second R version of this legendary design.
It features 8 elements in 7 groups and a weight of 491 g. Traditionally, the 50 mm standard lens has been the referent of quality of optical performance in the different photographic firms through history, and the Summilux-R 50 mm f/1.4 evidently follows that path.
It is an ultra high speed lens which offers exceptionally good and high contrast optical performance throughout the whole focusing range and at all f stops between f/2 and f/8 (and very good at f/1.4), with a maximum aperture f/1.4 being very useful to take advantage of unique compositional possibilities by means of intentional restriction of the depth of field.
The Summilux-R 50 mm f/1.4 reaches its peak of quality at f/2.8, f/4 and f/5.6, and currently in 2008 there´s only one 50 mm lens on earth able to beat it at the quoted apertures: the Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH for Leica rangefinders.
A very handy and compact lens becoming an actual photographic jewel in photojournalism domain, specially for handheld shooting with available light in all kind of photographic environments, achieving a tremendous power of resolution and contrast, capturing impressive levels of fine details and textures with superb faithfulness and realism, preserving the whole atmospheres of the places without using flash, always attaining a formidable image quality on the entire image surface, both in the centers and corners, and with distortion having been reduced to very negligible levels, almost zero, and not observable in king size enlargements 50 x 70 cm on photographic paper.
The optical performance in the nearest focusing distances (the minimum one being 50 cm) is superb at all f stops, and the antireflection capacity and prevention of flare is fabulous, even at full aperture and with strongly backlighted subjects.
On the other hand, once more, Leica hallmark is very present in the wonderful reproduction of the outlines of the motifs to utmost enhance the microcontrast, something deemed by the legendary German firm as something of top paramount importance so as to get the best feasible image quality.
Likewise, bokeh-aji delivered at f/1.4, f/2 and f/2.8 is wondrous, with very delicate transition from in focus to blurred areas, and behaving in a very similar way to the Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH, keeping to great extent the motif profiles in the out of focus zones.
Maximum aperture of f/1.4 is an utterly working choice getting actual professional image quality and from a global perspective, this super top-notch standard lens can become a redoubtable weapon in the hands of experienced pros and connoisseurs.
Summilux-R 80 mm f/1.4, currently the best lens in the world for full frame reflex cameras in the 75 mm / 80 mm f/1.4 scope, featuring 7 elements in 5 groups and a weight of 700 g.
Another of the legendary Leica lenses designed by Walter Mandler in Midlands (Ontario). Even at f/1.4, this very high speed stellar performer is utterly free of flare and delivers an exceptional image quality, being very remarkable in wonderfully separating the subtle tonal differences in light or shaded zones, however contrasty they may be.
A great lens for landscape and portrait photography, specially shooting under available light, as well as sporting negligible distortion, not observable on paper prints.
Vignetting values are very low: 1.6 diaphragm at f/1.4 and negligible from f/2 on.
It delivers extraordinary power of resolution and sharpness, together with a great evenness of superb optical performance on the whole picture area, also excelling in the reproduction of fine details, though contrast is medium (it doesn´t affect the superb image quality at all) because Walter Mandler had to balance a myriad of things to achieve the very top-notch image quality of this lens in all the other already quoted parameters, with the added bonus of getting at the same time both transparent and saturated colours, albeit harsh high key areas can fill the background.
In the same way, the rendering of tonal ranges with delicate hues and smooth gradients from in focus to out of focus areas, is something very valuable, specially when making outdoors portraits in which the photographer wishes to highlight the person posing with a blurred background to avoid any distracting elements or shapes.
The Summilux-R 80 mm f/1.4 does not suffer from unwanted reflections at full aperture even in the middle of very bright and contrasty locations.
Vario-Elmar-R 105-280 mm f/4.2 ROM. The designing of a professional zoom in the upper telephoto range of 100-300 mm and high aperture is one of the most coveted things in modern photography, though until now under the current state of optical knowledge a reasonable limit of f/4 is compulsory, because an aperture of f/2.8 throughout the whole range of optical lengths between 100 mm and 300 mm would increase brutally the manufacturing cost, volume and above all weight, becoming it rather cumbersome and heavy for handheld shots and making the photographer use a monopod or tripod in every situation (as happened with the excellent Sigma 120-300 2.8 EX APO IF HSM and the most recent APO 120-300 mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM weighing 2600 g and featuring 18 elements in 16 groups).
This way, Leica followed the path of designing a professional zoom lens with a maximum aperture around f/4 and a focal range of approximately 100-300 mm, delivering the best image quality attainable and reducing weight to the utmost.
So, the Vario-Elmar-R 105-280 mm f/4.2 ROM was introduced in 1996. It features 13 elements in 10 groups and a weight of 1950 g, being currently in 2008 the best professional upper telephoto zoom in the world, significantly beating in optical performance the other not very abundant nice zooms sporting approximately these focal lengths range, as for instance the Sigma 100-300 mm f/4 AT-X Pro II, the Sigma 100-300 mm f/4 EX IF HSM DG EX HSM and the Tokina 100-300 mm f/4 AT-X Pro II.
Even, the Vario-Elmar-R 105-280 mm f/4.2 ROM clearly outperforms in terms of image quality the excellent manual focusing Canon New FD 100-300 mm f/5.6 L (15 elements in 10 groups), the autofocus Canon EF 100-300 mm f/5.6L (produced between 1987 and 1999, also with an optical formula of 15 elements in 10 groups) featuring a synthetic fluorite glass element in the group 1 and an UD element in the group 2), with the added advantage of boasting double luminosity, and the top-notch manual focusing Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 100-300 mm f/4.5-5.6 in Contax/Yashica mount (12 elements in 7 groups) and the superb autofocus Vario-Sonnar T* 70-300 mm f/4-5.6 (16 elements in 11 groups and sporting fluor crown glass with anomalous partial dispersion) for the Contax N1 reflex camera.
The Vario-Elmar-R 105-280 mm f/4.2 ROM achieves the highest image performance of lenses with fixed focal lengths, rendering a high contrast and very outstanding resolution in every setting.
On the other hand, aberrations have been superbly corrected and there isn´t any trace of astigmatism, right up to the maximum height of the image.
Besides, it also has two separate control rings for fast and accurate focal length changes and focusing, and in the same way as happened with Walter Mandler´s mythical Apo-Telyt-R 180 mm f/3.4, the Vario-Elmarit-R 105-280 mm f/4.2 ROM is able to clearly show up details of all kind of objects and subjects being at great distances.
When using the longest focal lengths, the built-in rotating and locking tripod mount can be very useful for photographers.
Its minimum focusing distance is 170 cm. The best image quality is obtained between 160 mm and 280 mm focal lengths, and vignetting is negligible even at full aperture f/2.8 in all of the available focal lengths.
Capturing of fine details and all kind of textures is extraordinary from f/2.8 at all focal lengths and apertures up to f/8, with the exception of the focal lengths between 105 mm and 140 mm in which quality at f/2.8 is very good and superb from f/4.
Though well corrected, distortion is a bit observable both in the short and long ends of the zoom, in barrel and pincushion respectively as is the usual thing with zooms making available such a wide and versatile range of focal lengths.
This luxurious zoom also features a remarkable field flatness and very low levels of coma at f/2.8 which can be utterly eliminated by stopping down one diaphragm, i.e, from f/4. It is a full-fledged very powerful photographic tool enabling using medium and long tele distances.
Even attaching it the Leica-R extender 1,4x , image quality attained is very high, something very uncommon with zooms sporting large ranges of focal lengths.
Lying view of the Vario-Elmar-R 105-280 mm f/4.2 showing the very robust and high quality built-in rotating tripod it features, a very valuable fixture to draw all the optical performance of this world class zoom lens also boasting a great mechanical behaviour and gorgeous manufacturing building, along with a fairly spectacular cosmetic appearance. All materials are chosen for their time-proven durability and ensure consistent, dependable performance.
Another lying view of the Vario-Elmar-R 105-280 mm f/4.2 showing the nine golden ROM contacts for transmission of data between the lens and the camera body and the hard-chromed Leica R bayonet, manufactured to the tightest tolerances ( often under 0.01 mm, with precise lens seating fully maintained even well after 10,000 lens changes ).
As usual in Leica, the most meticulous selection of materials, mainly very noble metals, has been carried out in the production of this professional zoom, an epitome of lasting and reliable mechanical precision, together with long lasting compatibility regarding future camera generations, and creating a unique combination of high practical performance, reliability and lasting value, in such a way that over 100 years of experience in optical and accuracy mechanics is combined with the most advanced manufacturing technology and the craftsmanship which has made Leica lenses so suitable for dynamic and creative photography.
Telyt-R 560 mm f/6.8. Produced between 1971 and 1995, it is a very good lens for medium and long distance subjects, featuring a two elements in one group kind of telescopic optical scheme along with a weight of 2330 g, a minimum focusing distance of 6.40 m and a moderate full aperture but delivering very good image quality, specially on a monopod or tripod.
The focusing is made by means of a push-pull movement controlled with a rubberised button located on the barrel, something very easy, accurate and fast to fulfil. It suffers from a certain degree of field curvature and optical performance in the corners is simply good compared to the center optical performance which is top-notch. This is a very interesting lens for nature and wild life photography, delivering a very nice type of image.
During late sixties and beginning of the seventies, David Douglas Duncan made reportages of political conventions inside USA with both the Telyt-R 560 mm f/6.8 and the Telyt-R 400 mm f/6.8, achieving good results.
Some prototypes of the Telyt-R 560 mm f/6.8 were used during the Mexico 1970 Football World Cup, and once launched to the market in 1971, it was extensively used during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games and Germany 1974 Football World Cup.
Tests made by nature photographer Douglas Herr with the Telyt-R 500 mm f/6.8 attached to Canon 5D and Canon 40D through Leica R to Canon EOS adapter, have rendered extraordinary image quality, preserving classical aesthetic image beauty typical of seventies and eighties long lenses to a great deal, resembling by the way very much the kind of image rendered by the Canon FD 400 mm f/4.5 S.S.C and the extraordinary Nikkor 400 mm f/3.5 AIS ED-IF.
If the upcoming full format Leica R10 autofocus digital sensor delivers very good image quality between iso 1000 and 2000, the slow maximum aperture of the Telyt-R 560 mm f/6.8 would be greatly minimized and treating oneself to use it would become a real delight, even handheld without a monopod and with the great advantage of a low price and great image quality obtained, specially on the center of the frame.
Summicron-R-50 mm f/2 second version, now in 2008 the best 50 mm f/2 lens in the world for full frame reflex cameras. Introduced in 1976, it features 6 elements in 4 groups, with one cemented pair. It is a very compact lens weighing 290 g and sporting a built-in extensible lens hood.A very famous lens and one of the most remarkable masterpieces created by Walter Mandler in Midlands (Ontario), delivering an extraordinary image quality, even in the nearest focusing range of 50 cm.
Because of its very little size, low weight and a 41 mm length, it´s a high luminosity ideal travel lens able to render superb sharpness and definition power, along with high contrast and excellent resolution of the details, even at full aperture.
Previously, the Wizard of Midlands had designed in 1964 the Summicron-R-50 mm f/2 first version (which would be produced until 1976) featuring six elements with two cemented pairs.
Mandler had self imposed very strong criteria of cost savings and managed to achieve it through the use of two types of optical glass instead of the five of the 1957 Summicron-M 50 mm f/2 second version and replacing the superb but very expensive Lak9 optical glass with flint glass, improving at the same time the image quality, the acutance, the contrast, the flare reduction and the blendendifferenz.
But with this Summicron-R-50 mm f/2 second version from 1976, Mandler had a bigger budget and decided to take the Double Gauss optical scheme to the scientific limit of its possibilities, making use of a special sort of glass boasting a very high refractive index of 1.8 which had been previously used in the optical formula of the Noctilux-M 50 mm f/1.
This way, the genius Walter Mandler made a very wise combination of the use of a computer featuring Helmut Marx´s designed COMO program and an incredible variety of tricks and resources of its own to add its personal touch and striving to the utmost after balancing the oblique spherical aberration with third order aberrations (something extremely difficult at f/2), and fulfilled its task, even attaining a bettering of fine detail faithfulness and accuracy on a bigger area on a bigger area of the surface image at full aperture, including a significant percentage of the corners.
Besides, the prodigious Walter Mandler intentionally introduced 1.86 f stops vignetting figures at full aperture to maximize the reduction of distortion, stray light and coma.
On the other hand, this lens renders one of the most beautiful image aesthetics in the history of photography and is an authentic cornerstone in high quality photojournalism.
This Summicron-R-50 mm f/2 from 1976 is deemed to be almost impossible to beat using the Double Gauss scheme and without taking advantage of aspherical surfaces and is an absolutely top-notch world class referent of optical performance thirty two years after its launching into market, as well as delivering a superb accuracy in colour rendition and negligible almost zero barrel distortion, not detectable in 30 x 40 cm enlargements on photographic paper and pictures made with it show that famous Leica glow and feel.
Coma, vignetting ( only a very slight degree of falloff at f/2 ), astigmatism and curvature of field are almost non existent.
Inverted view of a Summicron-R-50 mm f/2 second version made in Canada, a lens excelling at rendering an impressively uniform contrast at full aperture on the whole image surface.Besides, the overall build quality is superb. Both the barrel and the mount base, together with the rings for diaphragms and focusing, have been manufactured with highly strong metals and created to endure many decades of steady hard use.
On the other hand, the retractable built-in hood is very useful to prevent the entering of stray light hitting the front glass element.
A very compact all-around lens highly suitable for natural rendition of ample subjects.
Summilux-R 50 mm f/1.4 ROM, currently in 2008 the best 50 mm f/1.4 for full frame reflex cameras in the world. A truly Rolls-Royce standard lens introduced in 1998, being the second R version of this legendary design.It features 8 elements in 7 groups and a weight of 491 g. Traditionally, the 50 mm standard lens has been the referent of quality of optical performance in the different photographic firms through history, and the Summilux-R 50 mm f/1.4 evidently follows that path.
It is an ultra high speed lens which offers exceptionally good and high contrast optical performance throughout the whole focusing range and at all f stops between f/2 and f/8 (and very good at f/1.4), with a maximum aperture f/1.4 being very useful to take advantage of unique compositional possibilities by means of intentional restriction of the depth of field.
The Summilux-R 50 mm f/1.4 reaches its peak of quality at f/2.8, f/4 and f/5.6, and currently in 2008 there´s only one 50 mm lens on earth able to beat it at the quoted apertures: the Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH for Leica rangefinders.
A very handy and compact lens becoming an actual photographic jewel in photojournalism domain, specially for handheld shooting with available light in all kind of photographic environments, achieving a tremendous power of resolution and contrast, capturing impressive levels of fine details and textures with superb faithfulness and realism, preserving the whole atmospheres of the places without using flash, always attaining a formidable image quality on the entire image surface, both in the centers and corners, and with distortion having been reduced to very negligible levels, almost zero, and not observable in king size enlargements 50 x 70 cm on photographic paper.
The optical performance in the nearest focusing distances (the minimum one being 50 cm) is superb at all f stops, and the antireflection capacity and prevention of flare is fabulous, even at full aperture and with strongly backlighted subjects.
On the other hand, once more, Leica hallmark is very present in the wonderful reproduction of the outlines of the motifs to utmost enhance the microcontrast, something deemed by the legendary German firm as something of top paramount importance so as to get the best feasible image quality.
Likewise, bokeh-aji delivered at f/1.4, f/2 and f/2.8 is wondrous, with very delicate transition from in focus to blurred areas, and behaving in a very similar way to the Summilux-M 50 mm f/1.4 ASPH, keeping to great extent the motif profiles in the out of focus zones.
Maximum aperture of f/1.4 is an utterly working choice getting actual professional image quality and from a global perspective, this super top-notch standard lens can become a redoubtable weapon in the hands of experienced pros and connoisseurs.
Summilux-R 80 mm f/1.4, currently the best lens in the world for full frame reflex cameras in the 75 mm / 80 mm f/1.4 scope, featuring 7 elements in 5 groups and a weight of 700 g.Another of the legendary Leica lenses designed by Walter Mandler in Midlands (Ontario). Even at f/1.4, this very high speed stellar performer is utterly free of flare and delivers an exceptional image quality, being very remarkable in wonderfully separating the subtle tonal differences in light or shaded zones, however contrasty they may be.
A great lens for landscape and portrait photography, specially shooting under available light, as well as sporting negligible distortion, not observable on paper prints.
Vignetting values are very low: 1.6 diaphragm at f/1.4 and negligible from f/2 on.
It delivers extraordinary power of resolution and sharpness, together with a great evenness of superb optical performance on the whole picture area, also excelling in the reproduction of fine details, though contrast is medium (it doesn´t affect the superb image quality at all) because Walter Mandler had to balance a myriad of things to achieve the very top-notch image quality of this lens in all the other already quoted parameters, with the added bonus of getting at the same time both transparent and saturated colours, albeit harsh high key areas can fill the background.
In the same way, the rendering of tonal ranges with delicate hues and smooth gradients from in focus to out of focus areas, is something very valuable, specially when making outdoors portraits in which the photographer wishes to highlight the person posing with a blurred background to avoid any distracting elements or shapes.
The Summilux-R 80 mm f/1.4 does not suffer from unwanted reflections at full aperture even in the middle of very bright and contrasty locations.
Vario-Elmar-R 105-280 mm f/4.2 ROM. The designing of a professional zoom in the upper telephoto range of 100-300 mm and high aperture is one of the most coveted things in modern photography, though until now under the current state of optical knowledge a reasonable limit of f/4 is compulsory, because an aperture of f/2.8 throughout the whole range of optical lengths between 100 mm and 300 mm would increase brutally the manufacturing cost, volume and above all weight, becoming it rather cumbersome and heavy for handheld shots and making the photographer use a monopod or tripod in every situation (as happened with the excellent Sigma 120-300 2.8 EX APO IF HSM and the most recent APO 120-300 mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM weighing 2600 g and featuring 18 elements in 16 groups).This way, Leica followed the path of designing a professional zoom lens with a maximum aperture around f/4 and a focal range of approximately 100-300 mm, delivering the best image quality attainable and reducing weight to the utmost.
So, the Vario-Elmar-R 105-280 mm f/4.2 ROM was introduced in 1996. It features 13 elements in 10 groups and a weight of 1950 g, being currently in 2008 the best professional upper telephoto zoom in the world, significantly beating in optical performance the other not very abundant nice zooms sporting approximately these focal lengths range, as for instance the Sigma 100-300 mm f/4 AT-X Pro II, the Sigma 100-300 mm f/4 EX IF HSM DG EX HSM and the Tokina 100-300 mm f/4 AT-X Pro II.
Even, the Vario-Elmar-R 105-280 mm f/4.2 ROM clearly outperforms in terms of image quality the excellent manual focusing Canon New FD 100-300 mm f/5.6 L (15 elements in 10 groups), the autofocus Canon EF 100-300 mm f/5.6L (produced between 1987 and 1999, also with an optical formula of 15 elements in 10 groups) featuring a synthetic fluorite glass element in the group 1 and an UD element in the group 2), with the added advantage of boasting double luminosity, and the top-notch manual focusing Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 100-300 mm f/4.5-5.6 in Contax/Yashica mount (12 elements in 7 groups) and the superb autofocus Vario-Sonnar T* 70-300 mm f/4-5.6 (16 elements in 11 groups and sporting fluor crown glass with anomalous partial dispersion) for the Contax N1 reflex camera.
The Vario-Elmar-R 105-280 mm f/4.2 ROM achieves the highest image performance of lenses with fixed focal lengths, rendering a high contrast and very outstanding resolution in every setting.
On the other hand, aberrations have been superbly corrected and there isn´t any trace of astigmatism, right up to the maximum height of the image.
Besides, it also has two separate control rings for fast and accurate focal length changes and focusing, and in the same way as happened with Walter Mandler´s mythical Apo-Telyt-R 180 mm f/3.4, the Vario-Elmarit-R 105-280 mm f/4.2 ROM is able to clearly show up details of all kind of objects and subjects being at great distances.
When using the longest focal lengths, the built-in rotating and locking tripod mount can be very useful for photographers.
Its minimum focusing distance is 170 cm. The best image quality is obtained between 160 mm and 280 mm focal lengths, and vignetting is negligible even at full aperture f/2.8 in all of the available focal lengths.
Capturing of fine details and all kind of textures is extraordinary from f/2.8 at all focal lengths and apertures up to f/8, with the exception of the focal lengths between 105 mm and 140 mm in which quality at f/2.8 is very good and superb from f/4.
Though well corrected, distortion is a bit observable both in the short and long ends of the zoom, in barrel and pincushion respectively as is the usual thing with zooms making available such a wide and versatile range of focal lengths.
This luxurious zoom also features a remarkable field flatness and very low levels of coma at f/2.8 which can be utterly eliminated by stopping down one diaphragm, i.e, from f/4. It is a full-fledged very powerful photographic tool enabling using medium and long tele distances.
Even attaching it the Leica-R extender 1,4x , image quality attained is very high, something very uncommon with zooms sporting large ranges of focal lengths.
Lying view of the Vario-Elmar-R 105-280 mm f/4.2 showing the very robust and high quality built-in rotating tripod it features, a very valuable fixture to draw all the optical performance of this world class zoom lens also boasting a great mechanical behaviour and gorgeous manufacturing building, along with a fairly spectacular cosmetic appearance. All materials are chosen for their time-proven durability and ensure consistent, dependable performance.
Another lying view of the Vario-Elmar-R 105-280 mm f/4.2 showing the nine golden ROM contacts for transmission of data between the lens and the camera body and the hard-chromed Leica R bayonet, manufactured to the tightest tolerances ( often under 0.01 mm, with precise lens seating fully maintained even well after 10,000 lens changes ).As usual in Leica, the most meticulous selection of materials, mainly very noble metals, has been carried out in the production of this professional zoom, an epitome of lasting and reliable mechanical precision, together with long lasting compatibility regarding future camera generations, and creating a unique combination of high practical performance, reliability and lasting value, in such a way that over 100 years of experience in optical and accuracy mechanics is combined with the most advanced manufacturing technology and the craftsmanship which has made Leica lenses so suitable for dynamic and creative photography.
Telyt-R 560 mm f/6.8. Produced between 1971 and 1995, it is a very good lens for medium and long distance subjects, featuring a two elements in one group kind of telescopic optical scheme along with a weight of 2330 g, a minimum focusing distance of 6.40 m and a moderate full aperture but delivering very good image quality, specially on a monopod or tripod.The focusing is made by means of a push-pull movement controlled with a rubberised button located on the barrel, something very easy, accurate and fast to fulfil. It suffers from a certain degree of field curvature and optical performance in the corners is simply good compared to the center optical performance which is top-notch. This is a very interesting lens for nature and wild life photography, delivering a very nice type of image.
During late sixties and beginning of the seventies, David Douglas Duncan made reportages of political conventions inside USA with both the Telyt-R 560 mm f/6.8 and the Telyt-R 400 mm f/6.8, achieving good results.
Some prototypes of the Telyt-R 560 mm f/6.8 were used during the Mexico 1970 Football World Cup, and once launched to the market in 1971, it was extensively used during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games and Germany 1974 Football World Cup.
Tests made by nature photographer Douglas Herr with the Telyt-R 500 mm f/6.8 attached to Canon 5D and Canon 40D through Leica R to Canon EOS adapter, have rendered extraordinary image quality, preserving classical aesthetic image beauty typical of seventies and eighties long lenses to a great deal, resembling by the way very much the kind of image rendered by the Canon FD 400 mm f/4.5 S.S.C and the extraordinary Nikkor 400 mm f/3.5 AIS ED-IF.
If the upcoming full format Leica R10 autofocus digital sensor delivers very good image quality between iso 1000 and 2000, the slow maximum aperture of the Telyt-R 560 mm f/6.8 would be greatly minimized and treating oneself to use it would become a real delight, even handheld without a monopod and with the great advantage of a low price and great image quality obtained, specially on the center of the frame.
Summicron-R 90 mm f/2, a very top quality lens rendering high contrast, optimal sharpness and extraordinary power of resolution, also taking advantage of its compact size and high speed which makes it a very suitable lens for photojournalism, portrait and candid photography.It features 5 elements in 4 groups, a weight of 520 g and a minimum focusing distance of 70 cm.
This lens was designed by Walter Mandler in Midlands (Ontario), and its performance goes between very good but a bit soft at full aperture f/2, superb at f/2.8 and f/4 and stellar from f/5.6.
Notwithstanding, it´s very important to bear in mind that the quoted slight softness at full aperture was something deliberately introduced by the Wizard of Midlands in the optical formula so as to attain the best feasible portraits with out of focus backgrounds minimizing all kind of defects or imperfections in skin and also photojournalism pictures in which is better to reduce strong or very strong contrast environments.
Evenness of optical performance from f/2.8 is superb on a great percentage of the image surface, from center to corners (at f/2 the edges quality drops a bit because of the previously explained reasons).
Unlike designs like the Apo-Telyt-R 180 mm f/3.4, Mandler optimised the optical performances of the Summicron-R 90 mm f/2 for medium and specially short distances. In spite of being a classical non aspherical almost 40 years old design not reaching the super stellar performance of the very up-to-date and state of the art Apo-Summicron-R 90 mm f/2 ASPH regarding power of definition in lines per mm and contrast, there´s a significant percentage of photographers preferring the more vintage aesthetic image beauty of Mandler´s design, particularly at full aperture in portraiture, a domain in which Mandler´s lens goes on being the best performer in the world, delivering very artistic pictures and wonderful bokeh, beating the Apo- Summicron-R 90 mm f/2 ASPH in this regard, albeit not getting the latter´s so tremendously biting sharp images.
At full aperture Summicron-R 90 mm f/2´s vignetting value is around 1.6 diaphragm. ROM contacts can be attached by Leica.
The world famous Leica R Lenses are made following a unique and brutally accurate manufacturing process aiming at attaining the best image quality obtainable in the 35 mm format standard for reflex cameras. The highest tolerances imposed by Leica are constantly strengthened with steady quality control tests made during the production of all components, from the grinding, polishing and mounting of each individual lens elements to the incredibly accurate assembly of the finished lens.
Semilateral front view of Summicron-R 90 mm f/2, a classic lens from 1969 and still a world class masterpiece for portraits and photojournalism with a more than very interesting price/image quality ratio.
Apo-Summicron-R 90 mm f/2 ASPH ROM, with difference currently in 2008 the best lens in the world for full frame reflex cameras in its focal length and maximum aperture, delivering a tremendously high quality of image of image and beating at f/2 the optical performance of many flagship primes of other brands at f/8, however incredible it may seem.
Introduced in the Photokina Köln 1996, it features 5 elements in 5 groups, a weight of 520 g and a minimum focusing distance of 50 cm.
This is one of the most impressive tour de force optical designs ever made by Leica, because the compactness and very little volume and weight of this lens are really awesome, to such an extent that when having it in the hand it´s very similar to a standard 50 mm f/2 or f/1.4 lens.
Its truly apochromatic correction is world class and at full aperture f/2 it reaches 70 lines / mm in the center, getting its optimum performance at f/5.6 with around 90 lines / mm.
Definitely, this is an out of parameters lens, because the image quality at all apertures is brutally high, and it barely improves on stopping it down.
But things don´t end here. There´s more: resolution values for center, corners and extreme borders are very tight for all apertures between f/2 and f/8, with a very astounding evenness of optical performance on the whole image surface.
And this latter aspect is absolutely uncommon in primes boasting f/2 maximum aperture and another fabulous optical feat accomplished by Leica.
The symbiosis between the truly apochromatic correction, the third element boasting an aspherical surface and two of the five lens elements manufactured with special high refractive optical glasses and other two more sporting anomalous partial dispersion prove distinctly to be key ingredients in the optical formula of this monster of high quality of image.
Vignetting at full f/2 aperture is very low, 0.9 diaphragm and distortion is almost negligible and above all not visible in practical situations on big enlargements on photographic paper.
The brilliance and contrast rendition this lens is able to attain are actually amazing, and it allows a very bright viewfinder image enabling the photographers a very accurate focusing (a very useful advantage for portraits), even in very dim light conditions.
Likewise, there´s a further interesting option: linking the Apo-Summicron-R 90 mm f/2 ASPH ROM to the Leica Apo-Extender-R 2x, and getting a still very high quality 180 mm f/4 lens, something very odd, because under normal parameters the limit to keep good image quality is a 1,4x extender.
Such is the quality of the Apo-Summicron-R 90 mm f/2 ASPH ROM, that also includes the most state-of-the-art improvements and technical breakthroughs in mechanical sturdiness and accuracy.
On the other hand, apart from being a superstellar performer in terms of brutal resolution and contrast along with tremendous ability to capture all kind of minute details and textures with rather showy faithfulness, this is one of the lenses in the Leica R line-up which better epitomizes the steady great attention which Leica has always paid to fully enhance the outlines of the subjects, bringing about a gorgeous rendering of microcontrast and global acutance, something of paramount importance for the German firm when striving after achieving the best possible image quality and optical performance of a lens.
To sum up, the Apo-Summicron-R 90 mm f/2 ASPH ROm is one of the current most important Leica R flagships and has proved to boast a superb synergy with all kind of digital sensors, from the 4/3 Olympus System (in cameras like the Olympus E-330, Olympus E-510 and above all in the flagship Olympus E-3, whose viewfinder is very good ) to the Canon 1.6 x APS-C digital sensors to full frame sensors in Canon 5D, Canon EOS 1Ds, Canon 1Ds Mark II, Canon Eos 1Ds Mark III, etc.
In all of the combinations with digital sensors, image quality obtained with the Apo-Summicron-R 90 mm f/2 ASPH ROM is superb and greatly keeping the Leica aesthetics of image beauty.
Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/4, currently in 2008 with a lot of difference the best lens on earth in the range 280 / 300 mm f/4 for full frame reflex cameras, greatly beating in image quality both at full aperture and rest of diaphragms the excellent Carl Zeiss Tele-Tessar T* 300 mm f/4 in Contax/Yashica Mount, Canon EF 300 mm f/4L IS USM, Nikkor 300 mm f/4 IF-ED, Nikkor 300 mm f/4 IF-ED AF-S, Canon New FD 300 mm f/4L, Nikon 300 mm f/4.5 AI (produced between 1977 and 1981), Nikkor 300 mm f/4.5 AI-s (produced between 1981 and 1998), Nikkor 300 mm f/4.5 ED (produced between 1977 and 1979), Nikkor 300 mm f/4.5 ED-IF (produced between 1978 and 1999), Nikkor 300 mm f/4 AF ( produced between 1987 and 2000), Nikkor 300 mm f/4 AF-S (made between 2000 and 2008 and still in production), Minolta AF-300 mm f/4 HS-APO G introduced in 1994, Pentax SMC-M* 300 mm f/4, Sigma 300 mm f/4 Apo Tele Macro HSM and the very good currently produced Russian APO Telezenitar 300 mm f/4.5 both in Nikon and Pentax K mounts (featuring an incredibly low price), Asahi Pentax SMC Takumar 400 mm f/4 in M42 mount, Asahi Pentax Super Takumar 300 mm f/4 in M42 mount and the great Olympus Zuiko Auto-T 300 mm f/4.5 for the legendary OM System reflex cameras masterpieces designed by Yoshihisa Maitani.
The Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/4 is an absolutely out of parameters lens rendering a brutally high image quality in terms of power of resolution, contrast, capturing of fine details and faithfulness in the reproduction of textures, apart from delivering a tremendous enhancement of the outlines of the subjects, which brings about a superb acutance and microcontrast.
It features 7 elements in 6 groups, a minimum focusing distance of 1´80 m and a weight of 1875 g.
Its optical performance is virtually unbeatable under current scientific knowledge: completely distortion free, even at full aperture, along with extraordinary resolution, colour rendition accuracy and contrast over the whole focusing range, with a praiseworthy uniformity of superstellar optical performance on the entire image surface, both in the center, borders and extreme corners.
Introduced in 1993, the Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/4 measures 21 cm in length and is very suitable for hand-held shots, though best results will be obtained with this out of this world lens on a sturdy monopod or tripod (this telephoto lens sports a built-in tripod mount) and using the appropriate techniques, because however incredible it may be, very few photographers will ever be able to extract the full potential of optical performance this lens is able to deliver, in the same way as happens with the also out of parameters and gorgeous Apo-Summicron-R 180 mm f/2.
Its light falloff levels at full aperture f/4 are very low: 0.6 diaphragm.
The Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/4 is a photographic jewel, a full-fledged masterpiece created by Dr Lothar Kölsch Team, who following different designing ways and using very up-to-date machines made a step further attaining to improve the quality at f/4 of four legendary supermonsters of optical performance featuring focal lengths between 250 mm and 350 mm:
- The Olympus Zuiko Auto-T 250 mm f/2 ED-IF boasting 12 elements in 9 groups, a weight of 3900 g, minimum focusing distance of 2, 2 m and delivering a tremendously superb image quality throughout its entire focusing range and across all apertures by a remarkable internal focusing system, multilayers coating and special optical glasses to render superb resolution, with 4 extra low dispersion glass elements guaranteeing chromatic aberrations be kept to minimal levels while getting sharp resolution and extremely high contrast across its entire range of focusing. The Japanese genius Yoshihisa Maitani made a very atrenuous effort and put all of his expertise selecting the best possible multilayers lens coating to provide faithful, outstanding colour rendition with minimal flare even on using the objective in unfavourable shooting conditions.
- The Olympus Zuiko Auto-T 350 mm f/2.8 ED-IF, featuring 9 elements in 7 groups, a weight of 3900 g, a minimum focusing distance of 3 m and using very high level ED glass, specially developed optical glass featuring a low refractive index and low dispersion traits to keep chromatic aberrations inherent to the super telephoto lenses to absolute minimal level.
- The Nikkor 300 mm ED-IF 300 mm f/2 from 1981, 11 elements in 8 groups, a weight of 7´5 kg, a minimum focusing distance of 4 m, internal focusing and extra low dispersion ED glass ensuring supersharp images free of chromatic aberrations. During 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, some AI-s version samples of this heavyweight lens (weighting approximately 500 g less than the original 1981 model) were used on sturdy tripods to make photographs of Carl Lewis, Calvin Smith, Sam Graddy and Ron Brown 4 x 100 relay winners, getting splending results.
- The secret prototype Canon FD 300 mm f/1.8L featuring top-notch artificially grown fluorite optical glass.
During eighties, it was considered virtually impossible to beat in future the optical performance at f/4 of these four Japanese supermonster telephotos, which is really extraordinary.
From scratch, Leica was fully aware that trying to design lenses in the range 250-300 mm with a maximum aperture f/2 and the very stringent tolerances and brutally high parameters of image quality at all the diaphragms, specially the widest ones, trying to beat in image quality the four Japanese quoted supermonsters would be a titanic effort regarding cost of production, bulk and weight of that kind of lenses, very difficult to introduce in the market, since final price would be astronomical.
On the other hand, Leica had already began working on the revolutionary Apo-Telyt-R Modular System (which would be introduced during Photokina Köln 1996), and it was important trying to avoid any overlapping of lenses with equal or similar focal lengths and apertures (there was already a very good Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/2.8 Non Modular introduced in 1984 and a new and superb Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/2.8 Modular was due to appear within three years together with the rest of superteles of the formidable Leica Apo-Telyt-R Modular System).
This way, Leica took the decision of designing a 280 mm lens with a maximum aperture of f/4, being the best teleobjective in the range 280 / 300 mm ever made for a full frame reflex camera, rendering the most extraordinary image quality in the world both at this diaphragm and the rest of f stops up to f/8: the Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/4, which was introduced in 1993 and goes on currently in 2008 being the undisputed monarch in this respect and a very valuable tool for any professional or connoisseur photographer wishing to capture superlative details at long distances, small subjects or all kind of motifs for which it is not possible to get in closer, i.e, the classic field of application of fast long telephoto lenses.
Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/2.8 Pre Modular, a very high quality supertelephoto lens, though not reaching the tremendous optical performance of the extraordinary Rolls-Royces Canon EF 300 mm f/2.8 L IS USM, Nikkor 300 mm f/2.8 s ED-IF, Nikkor 300 mm f/2.8 Silent Wave AFS ED, Nikkor 300 mm f/2.8 G AF-S ED-IF both in its non VR and VR versions and Pentax SMC-A* 300 mm f/2.8 and Pentax SMC-FA 300 mm f/2.8 ED (IF) and the manual focusing Pentax SMC P-A 300 mm f/2.8 ED (IF), which beat it clearly, specially in the corners.
It was produced between 1984 and 1997, sporting a built-in extensible lens hood and internal focusing so that lens length remains constant during focusing.
On the other hand, this lens features a bias to flare with backlit subjects and the front element is very soft and you must be careful not to scratch it, always using the protective filter which is probably part of the optical formula.
Though not a stellar performer, this is a very high quality lens, boasting a very good truly apochromatic design and able to deliver superb pictures in the hands of an expert photographer, with the constant available chance of attaching it to a Leica-R 2x and getting an interesting 560 mm f/5.6 lens keeping good image quality in the center of the image surface.
Leica-R 280 / 400 / 560 Lens Head
Leica-R 400 / 560 / 800 Lens Head
Focus Module 1x 280 / 400 f/2.8
Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/2.8 Modular, currently in 2008 the best lens in the world in the range 280 / 300 mm f/2.8 for full frame reflex cameras. It features a tremendous truly apochromatic correction, 8 elements in 7 groups, a weight of 3740 g and a minimum focusing distance of 2 m.
It beats in image quality at full aperture and rest of diaphragms the Canon EF 300 mm f/2.8L IS USM, the Nikkor 300 mm f/2.8 G AF-S ED-IF VR, the Pentax SMC-FA 300 mm f/2.8 ED (IF) and even the Carl Zeiss Tele-Apotessar T* 300 mm f/2.8, a brutal optical feat, because all these 300s f/2.8 from Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Carl Zeiss are super stellar performers whose purchase is likewise commendable.
Apo-Telyt-R 400 mm f/2.8 Modular, currently in 2008 the best 400 mm f/2.8 lens in the world for full frame reflex cameras. It features 10 elements in 8 groups, a weight of 6240 g and a minimum focusing distance of 3 ´ 70 m.
This superteleobjective delivers an exceptionally high image quality in terms of resolving power, sharpness, superb contrast and acutance enhancing subjects contours, along with a tremendous capturing of fine details and textures of all kind, insignificant vignetting and distortion, also getting tremendous optical performance in the shortest distances as proved by the professional photographer José Latova Fernández-Luna who has made superb portraits with the Apo-Telyt-R 400 mm f/2.8 Modular and Lastolite reflectors.
All these qualities of the Apo-Telyt-R 400 mm f/2.8 Modular are shared by the rest of lenses between 280 mm and 800 mm of the formidable Leica Apo-Telyt-R Modular System, almost entirely made by hand with tremendous craftsmanship by Leica world class optical designers and mechanical engineers.
It´s very important to bear in mind that the Apo-Telyt-R Modular System is handcrafted and coupled according to brutally stringent tolerances, the only path to avoid any mechanical failure, however minute it may be, which could hinder an electron of the performance.
Probably this is the most complex and advanced photographic optical system in history outside military domain, whose goal was from the scratch to get the best teleobjectives on earth between 280 mm and 800 mm attaching two different big glasses (each one featuring its own optical formula with its elements and groups) in the boundary of the impossible but attained by Leica.
Nature and animal photographers, without forgetting sports pros, using a number of focal lengths between 300 mm and 800 mm will take great benefit from this extraordinary Apo-Telyt-R range of lenses made possible with two Lens Heads and three Focus Modules.
Therefore, the combination of one lens head with two or three focus modules saves space and weight, but there´s a further key factor: the smooth and easy focusing action of each lens obtained results in very precise adjustment that helps to place the plane of maximum sharpness exactly where desired.
Focus Module 1,4x 400 / 560 f/4
Apo-Telyt-R 400 mm f/4 Modular, currently in 2008 the best 400 mm f/4 lens in the world for full frame reflex cameras.
It features a tremendous truly apochromatic correction, 9 elements in 7 groups, a weight of 3860 g and a minimum focusing distance of 2´15 m.
It beats in image quality at full aperture and rest of diaphragms the manual focusing Tamron SP 400 mm f/4, the Canon EF 400 mm f/4 DO IS USM and even the extraordinary manual focusing Nikkor 400 mm f/3.5 EDIF, one of the shapest teles ever made.
Apo-Telyt-R 560 mm f/4 Modular, currently in 2008 the best lens in the world in the focal length range 500 mm f/5.6 / 560 mm f/5.6 / 600 mm f/5.6 for full frame reflex cameras., beating in image quality the Nikkor 500 mm f/4 G ED VR AF-S, the Canon EF 500 mm f/4L IS USM, the Nikkor 600 mm f/4D ED-IF AF-S II, the Nikkor 600 mm f/4G ED VR AF-S and the Canon EF 600 mm f/4L.
It features 11 elements in 8 groups, a minimum focusing distance of 3´95 g and a weight of 6360 g. This is one of the six available super telephoto lenses of the formidable Leica Apo-Telyt-R Module System, achieving the best quality of image existing currently on earth with this kind of professional long lenses, despite this absolutely state-of-the-art system was introduced during 1996 Photokina Köln.
Leica Apo-Telyt-R Module System provides lenses of 280 mm f/2.8, 400 mm f/2.8, 400 mm f/4, 560 mm f/4, 560 mm f/5.6 and 800 mm f/5.6, with two lens heads and three focusing modules, which is a great advantages for professional photographers of sports, wild life and nature, who save a lot of weight and bulk on not being bound to carry different long telephotos for each focal length between 300 mm and 800 mm.
All lenses boast a gorgeous apochromatic correction and deliver extraordinary image quality, specially at full aperture for which they were optimized.
This system is one of the most incredible achievements in the history of photography, because Leica has managed to keep a world class image quality after actually superimposing two different optical formulae in each of the six feasible lenses of the system.
That´s to say, when choosing for instance the option Apo-Telyt-R 400 mm f/2.8, we have got the Focus Module 1x 280 / 400 f/2.8 -which is a big glass in itself- attached to the Leica R 280 / 400 / 560 Lens Head -which is another big glass in itself-.
The two components are joined together quickly and easily with a large bayonet fitting. But things don´t end here.
Optical performance of any of the six lenses of the Leica Apo-Telyt-R is so impressive that Apo-Extenders R 1.4x and 2x can be used without problems preserving a very good image quality, though in this way we would have three different glasses together! A really tremendous exploit only made till now by Leica.
In any case, we shouldn´t forget other wonderful long teleobjectives for full frame reflex cameras in Nikon line-up like the wonderful 9 diaphragm blades AF- S Nikkor 300 mm f/2.8 G, AF-S Nikkor 400 mm f/2.8 G ED VR, the AF-S Nikkor 500 mm f/4 G ED VR, the AF-S Nikkor 600 mm f/4 G ED VR and the manual focusing Nikkor 800 mm f/5.6 ED-IF-Ai-S (an utterly workable choice attached to a full frame reflex camera, because the big viewfinder allows a convenient and quick focusing) or other top-notch superteles in the Canon assortment like the extraordinary Canon EF 300 mm f/2.8 L IS USM, the Canon EF 400 mm f/2.8L IS USM, the Canon EF 500 mm f/4L IS USM, the Canon EF 600 mm f/4L IS USM, the Canon EF 1200 mm f/5.6L USM.
If we bear in mind the tremendous level of image quality delivered by all of these Nikon and Canon supertelelenses that are individual optical designs in each objective, we will be able to realize the magnitude of the incredible feat made by Leica which with the Apo-Telyt-R System has achieved to improve such a stellar level of image quality going into the superstellar domain with each of the six available lenses of the system which is really made with two big glasses with their respective elements and groups, that are assembled to create every Apo-Telyt-R lens.
Semilateral front view of Summicron-R 90 mm f/2, a classic lens from 1969 and still a world class masterpiece for portraits and photojournalism with a more than very interesting price/image quality ratio.
Apo-Summicron-R 90 mm f/2 ASPH ROM, with difference currently in 2008 the best lens in the world for full frame reflex cameras in its focal length and maximum aperture, delivering a tremendously high quality of image of image and beating at f/2 the optical performance of many flagship primes of other brands at f/8, however incredible it may seem.Introduced in the Photokina Köln 1996, it features 5 elements in 5 groups, a weight of 520 g and a minimum focusing distance of 50 cm.
This is one of the most impressive tour de force optical designs ever made by Leica, because the compactness and very little volume and weight of this lens are really awesome, to such an extent that when having it in the hand it´s very similar to a standard 50 mm f/2 or f/1.4 lens.
Its truly apochromatic correction is world class and at full aperture f/2 it reaches 70 lines / mm in the center, getting its optimum performance at f/5.6 with around 90 lines / mm.
Definitely, this is an out of parameters lens, because the image quality at all apertures is brutally high, and it barely improves on stopping it down.
But things don´t end here. There´s more: resolution values for center, corners and extreme borders are very tight for all apertures between f/2 and f/8, with a very astounding evenness of optical performance on the whole image surface.
And this latter aspect is absolutely uncommon in primes boasting f/2 maximum aperture and another fabulous optical feat accomplished by Leica.
The symbiosis between the truly apochromatic correction, the third element boasting an aspherical surface and two of the five lens elements manufactured with special high refractive optical glasses and other two more sporting anomalous partial dispersion prove distinctly to be key ingredients in the optical formula of this monster of high quality of image.
Vignetting at full f/2 aperture is very low, 0.9 diaphragm and distortion is almost negligible and above all not visible in practical situations on big enlargements on photographic paper.
The brilliance and contrast rendition this lens is able to attain are actually amazing, and it allows a very bright viewfinder image enabling the photographers a very accurate focusing (a very useful advantage for portraits), even in very dim light conditions.
Likewise, there´s a further interesting option: linking the Apo-Summicron-R 90 mm f/2 ASPH ROM to the Leica Apo-Extender-R 2x, and getting a still very high quality 180 mm f/4 lens, something very odd, because under normal parameters the limit to keep good image quality is a 1,4x extender.
Such is the quality of the Apo-Summicron-R 90 mm f/2 ASPH ROM, that also includes the most state-of-the-art improvements and technical breakthroughs in mechanical sturdiness and accuracy.
On the other hand, apart from being a superstellar performer in terms of brutal resolution and contrast along with tremendous ability to capture all kind of minute details and textures with rather showy faithfulness, this is one of the lenses in the Leica R line-up which better epitomizes the steady great attention which Leica has always paid to fully enhance the outlines of the subjects, bringing about a gorgeous rendering of microcontrast and global acutance, something of paramount importance for the German firm when striving after achieving the best possible image quality and optical performance of a lens.
To sum up, the Apo-Summicron-R 90 mm f/2 ASPH ROm is one of the current most important Leica R flagships and has proved to boast a superb synergy with all kind of digital sensors, from the 4/3 Olympus System (in cameras like the Olympus E-330, Olympus E-510 and above all in the flagship Olympus E-3, whose viewfinder is very good ) to the Canon 1.6 x APS-C digital sensors to full frame sensors in Canon 5D, Canon EOS 1Ds, Canon 1Ds Mark II, Canon Eos 1Ds Mark III, etc.
In all of the combinations with digital sensors, image quality obtained with the Apo-Summicron-R 90 mm f/2 ASPH ROM is superb and greatly keeping the Leica aesthetics of image beauty.
Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/4, currently in 2008 with a lot of difference the best lens on earth in the range 280 / 300 mm f/4 for full frame reflex cameras, greatly beating in image quality both at full aperture and rest of diaphragms the excellent Carl Zeiss Tele-Tessar T* 300 mm f/4 in Contax/Yashica Mount, Canon EF 300 mm f/4L IS USM, Nikkor 300 mm f/4 IF-ED, Nikkor 300 mm f/4 IF-ED AF-S, Canon New FD 300 mm f/4L, Nikon 300 mm f/4.5 AI (produced between 1977 and 1981), Nikkor 300 mm f/4.5 AI-s (produced between 1981 and 1998), Nikkor 300 mm f/4.5 ED (produced between 1977 and 1979), Nikkor 300 mm f/4.5 ED-IF (produced between 1978 and 1999), Nikkor 300 mm f/4 AF ( produced between 1987 and 2000), Nikkor 300 mm f/4 AF-S (made between 2000 and 2008 and still in production), Minolta AF-300 mm f/4 HS-APO G introduced in 1994, Pentax SMC-M* 300 mm f/4, Sigma 300 mm f/4 Apo Tele Macro HSM and the very good currently produced Russian APO Telezenitar 300 mm f/4.5 both in Nikon and Pentax K mounts (featuring an incredibly low price), Asahi Pentax SMC Takumar 400 mm f/4 in M42 mount, Asahi Pentax Super Takumar 300 mm f/4 in M42 mount and the great Olympus Zuiko Auto-T 300 mm f/4.5 for the legendary OM System reflex cameras masterpieces designed by Yoshihisa Maitani.The Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/4 is an absolutely out of parameters lens rendering a brutally high image quality in terms of power of resolution, contrast, capturing of fine details and faithfulness in the reproduction of textures, apart from delivering a tremendous enhancement of the outlines of the subjects, which brings about a superb acutance and microcontrast.
It features 7 elements in 6 groups, a minimum focusing distance of 1´80 m and a weight of 1875 g.
Its optical performance is virtually unbeatable under current scientific knowledge: completely distortion free, even at full aperture, along with extraordinary resolution, colour rendition accuracy and contrast over the whole focusing range, with a praiseworthy uniformity of superstellar optical performance on the entire image surface, both in the center, borders and extreme corners.
Introduced in 1993, the Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/4 measures 21 cm in length and is very suitable for hand-held shots, though best results will be obtained with this out of this world lens on a sturdy monopod or tripod (this telephoto lens sports a built-in tripod mount) and using the appropriate techniques, because however incredible it may be, very few photographers will ever be able to extract the full potential of optical performance this lens is able to deliver, in the same way as happens with the also out of parameters and gorgeous Apo-Summicron-R 180 mm f/2.
Its light falloff levels at full aperture f/4 are very low: 0.6 diaphragm.
The Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/4 is a photographic jewel, a full-fledged masterpiece created by Dr Lothar Kölsch Team, who following different designing ways and using very up-to-date machines made a step further attaining to improve the quality at f/4 of four legendary supermonsters of optical performance featuring focal lengths between 250 mm and 350 mm:
- The Olympus Zuiko Auto-T 250 mm f/2 ED-IF boasting 12 elements in 9 groups, a weight of 3900 g, minimum focusing distance of 2, 2 m and delivering a tremendously superb image quality throughout its entire focusing range and across all apertures by a remarkable internal focusing system, multilayers coating and special optical glasses to render superb resolution, with 4 extra low dispersion glass elements guaranteeing chromatic aberrations be kept to minimal levels while getting sharp resolution and extremely high contrast across its entire range of focusing. The Japanese genius Yoshihisa Maitani made a very atrenuous effort and put all of his expertise selecting the best possible multilayers lens coating to provide faithful, outstanding colour rendition with minimal flare even on using the objective in unfavourable shooting conditions.
- The Olympus Zuiko Auto-T 350 mm f/2.8 ED-IF, featuring 9 elements in 7 groups, a weight of 3900 g, a minimum focusing distance of 3 m and using very high level ED glass, specially developed optical glass featuring a low refractive index and low dispersion traits to keep chromatic aberrations inherent to the super telephoto lenses to absolute minimal level.
- The Nikkor 300 mm ED-IF 300 mm f/2 from 1981, 11 elements in 8 groups, a weight of 7´5 kg, a minimum focusing distance of 4 m, internal focusing and extra low dispersion ED glass ensuring supersharp images free of chromatic aberrations. During 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, some AI-s version samples of this heavyweight lens (weighting approximately 500 g less than the original 1981 model) were used on sturdy tripods to make photographs of Carl Lewis, Calvin Smith, Sam Graddy and Ron Brown 4 x 100 relay winners, getting splending results.
- The secret prototype Canon FD 300 mm f/1.8L featuring top-notch artificially grown fluorite optical glass.
During eighties, it was considered virtually impossible to beat in future the optical performance at f/4 of these four Japanese supermonster telephotos, which is really extraordinary.
From scratch, Leica was fully aware that trying to design lenses in the range 250-300 mm with a maximum aperture f/2 and the very stringent tolerances and brutally high parameters of image quality at all the diaphragms, specially the widest ones, trying to beat in image quality the four Japanese quoted supermonsters would be a titanic effort regarding cost of production, bulk and weight of that kind of lenses, very difficult to introduce in the market, since final price would be astronomical.
On the other hand, Leica had already began working on the revolutionary Apo-Telyt-R Modular System (which would be introduced during Photokina Köln 1996), and it was important trying to avoid any overlapping of lenses with equal or similar focal lengths and apertures (there was already a very good Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/2.8 Non Modular introduced in 1984 and a new and superb Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/2.8 Modular was due to appear within three years together with the rest of superteles of the formidable Leica Apo-Telyt-R Modular System).
This way, Leica took the decision of designing a 280 mm lens with a maximum aperture of f/4, being the best teleobjective in the range 280 / 300 mm ever made for a full frame reflex camera, rendering the most extraordinary image quality in the world both at this diaphragm and the rest of f stops up to f/8: the Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/4, which was introduced in 1993 and goes on currently in 2008 being the undisputed monarch in this respect and a very valuable tool for any professional or connoisseur photographer wishing to capture superlative details at long distances, small subjects or all kind of motifs for which it is not possible to get in closer, i.e, the classic field of application of fast long telephoto lenses.
Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/2.8 Pre Modular, a very high quality supertelephoto lens, though not reaching the tremendous optical performance of the extraordinary Rolls-Royces Canon EF 300 mm f/2.8 L IS USM, Nikkor 300 mm f/2.8 s ED-IF, Nikkor 300 mm f/2.8 Silent Wave AFS ED, Nikkor 300 mm f/2.8 G AF-S ED-IF both in its non VR and VR versions and Pentax SMC-A* 300 mm f/2.8 and Pentax SMC-FA 300 mm f/2.8 ED (IF) and the manual focusing Pentax SMC P-A 300 mm f/2.8 ED (IF), which beat it clearly, specially in the corners.It was produced between 1984 and 1997, sporting a built-in extensible lens hood and internal focusing so that lens length remains constant during focusing.
On the other hand, this lens features a bias to flare with backlit subjects and the front element is very soft and you must be careful not to scratch it, always using the protective filter which is probably part of the optical formula.
Though not a stellar performer, this is a very high quality lens, boasting a very good truly apochromatic design and able to deliver superb pictures in the hands of an expert photographer, with the constant available chance of attaching it to a Leica-R 2x and getting an interesting 560 mm f/5.6 lens keeping good image quality in the center of the image surface.
Leica-R 280 / 400 / 560 Lens Head
Leica-R 400 / 560 / 800 Lens HeadAfter painstaking cleaning of the lens elements, they´re are applied multicoating in a special vacuum chamber inside which some layers of quartz are intermixed with vaporized light metal fluorides and metal oxides. This proves to be of top paramount importance to get both the special uniform color balance throughout all Leica R Lenses and the exceptionally high light transmission across the visible spectrum they sport.
Focus Module 1x 280 / 400 f/2.8
Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/2.8 Modular, currently in 2008 the best lens in the world in the range 280 / 300 mm f/2.8 for full frame reflex cameras. It features a tremendous truly apochromatic correction, 8 elements in 7 groups, a weight of 3740 g and a minimum focusing distance of 2 m.It beats in image quality at full aperture and rest of diaphragms the Canon EF 300 mm f/2.8L IS USM, the Nikkor 300 mm f/2.8 G AF-S ED-IF VR, the Pentax SMC-FA 300 mm f/2.8 ED (IF) and even the Carl Zeiss Tele-Apotessar T* 300 mm f/2.8, a brutal optical feat, because all these 300s f/2.8 from Canon, Nikon, Pentax and Carl Zeiss are super stellar performers whose purchase is likewise commendable.
Apo-Telyt-R 400 mm f/2.8 Modular, currently in 2008 the best 400 mm f/2.8 lens in the world for full frame reflex cameras. It features 10 elements in 8 groups, a weight of 6240 g and a minimum focusing distance of 3 ´ 70 m.This superteleobjective delivers an exceptionally high image quality in terms of resolving power, sharpness, superb contrast and acutance enhancing subjects contours, along with a tremendous capturing of fine details and textures of all kind, insignificant vignetting and distortion, also getting tremendous optical performance in the shortest distances as proved by the professional photographer José Latova Fernández-Luna who has made superb portraits with the Apo-Telyt-R 400 mm f/2.8 Modular and Lastolite reflectors.
All these qualities of the Apo-Telyt-R 400 mm f/2.8 Modular are shared by the rest of lenses between 280 mm and 800 mm of the formidable Leica Apo-Telyt-R Modular System, almost entirely made by hand with tremendous craftsmanship by Leica world class optical designers and mechanical engineers.
It´s very important to bear in mind that the Apo-Telyt-R Modular System is handcrafted and coupled according to brutally stringent tolerances, the only path to avoid any mechanical failure, however minute it may be, which could hinder an electron of the performance.
Probably this is the most complex and advanced photographic optical system in history outside military domain, whose goal was from the scratch to get the best teleobjectives on earth between 280 mm and 800 mm attaching two different big glasses (each one featuring its own optical formula with its elements and groups) in the boundary of the impossible but attained by Leica.
Nature and animal photographers, without forgetting sports pros, using a number of focal lengths between 300 mm and 800 mm will take great benefit from this extraordinary Apo-Telyt-R range of lenses made possible with two Lens Heads and three Focus Modules.
Therefore, the combination of one lens head with two or three focus modules saves space and weight, but there´s a further key factor: the smooth and easy focusing action of each lens obtained results in very precise adjustment that helps to place the plane of maximum sharpness exactly where desired.
Focus Module 1,4x 400 / 560 f/4
Apo-Telyt-R 400 mm f/4 Modular, currently in 2008 the best 400 mm f/4 lens in the world for full frame reflex cameras.It features a tremendous truly apochromatic correction, 9 elements in 7 groups, a weight of 3860 g and a minimum focusing distance of 2´15 m.
It beats in image quality at full aperture and rest of diaphragms the manual focusing Tamron SP 400 mm f/4, the Canon EF 400 mm f/4 DO IS USM and even the extraordinary manual focusing Nikkor 400 mm f/3.5 EDIF, one of the shapest teles ever made.
Apo-Telyt-R 560 mm f/4 Modular, currently in 2008 the best lens in the world in the focal length range 500 mm f/5.6 / 560 mm f/5.6 / 600 mm f/5.6 for full frame reflex cameras., beating in image quality the Nikkor 500 mm f/4 G ED VR AF-S, the Canon EF 500 mm f/4L IS USM, the Nikkor 600 mm f/4D ED-IF AF-S II, the Nikkor 600 mm f/4G ED VR AF-S and the Canon EF 600 mm f/4L.It features 11 elements in 8 groups, a minimum focusing distance of 3´95 g and a weight of 6360 g. This is one of the six available super telephoto lenses of the formidable Leica Apo-Telyt-R Module System, achieving the best quality of image existing currently on earth with this kind of professional long lenses, despite this absolutely state-of-the-art system was introduced during 1996 Photokina Köln.
Leica Apo-Telyt-R Module System provides lenses of 280 mm f/2.8, 400 mm f/2.8, 400 mm f/4, 560 mm f/4, 560 mm f/5.6 and 800 mm f/5.6, with two lens heads and three focusing modules, which is a great advantages for professional photographers of sports, wild life and nature, who save a lot of weight and bulk on not being bound to carry different long telephotos for each focal length between 300 mm and 800 mm.
All lenses boast a gorgeous apochromatic correction and deliver extraordinary image quality, specially at full aperture for which they were optimized.
This system is one of the most incredible achievements in the history of photography, because Leica has managed to keep a world class image quality after actually superimposing two different optical formulae in each of the six feasible lenses of the system.
That´s to say, when choosing for instance the option Apo-Telyt-R 400 mm f/2.8, we have got the Focus Module 1x 280 / 400 f/2.8 -which is a big glass in itself- attached to the Leica R 280 / 400 / 560 Lens Head -which is another big glass in itself-.
The two components are joined together quickly and easily with a large bayonet fitting. But things don´t end here.
Optical performance of any of the six lenses of the Leica Apo-Telyt-R is so impressive that Apo-Extenders R 1.4x and 2x can be used without problems preserving a very good image quality, though in this way we would have three different glasses together! A really tremendous exploit only made till now by Leica.
In any case, we shouldn´t forget other wonderful long teleobjectives for full frame reflex cameras in Nikon line-up like the wonderful 9 diaphragm blades AF- S Nikkor 300 mm f/2.8 G, AF-S Nikkor 400 mm f/2.8 G ED VR, the AF-S Nikkor 500 mm f/4 G ED VR, the AF-S Nikkor 600 mm f/4 G ED VR and the manual focusing Nikkor 800 mm f/5.6 ED-IF-Ai-S (an utterly workable choice attached to a full frame reflex camera, because the big viewfinder allows a convenient and quick focusing) or other top-notch superteles in the Canon assortment like the extraordinary Canon EF 300 mm f/2.8 L IS USM, the Canon EF 400 mm f/2.8L IS USM, the Canon EF 500 mm f/4L IS USM, the Canon EF 600 mm f/4L IS USM, the Canon EF 1200 mm f/5.6L USM.
If we bear in mind the tremendous level of image quality delivered by all of these Nikon and Canon supertelelenses that are individual optical designs in each objective, we will be able to realize the magnitude of the incredible feat made by Leica which with the Apo-Telyt-R System has achieved to improve such a stellar level of image quality going into the superstellar domain with each of the six available lenses of the system which is really made with two big glasses with their respective elements and groups, that are assembled to create every Apo-Telyt-R lens.
Besides, by means of the exclusive Leica Multicoating System, each element is individually coated (up to eight layers in some cases) under different specifications, depending on the traits of the glass and the lens focal length. This way, Leica manages to obtain the tremendous optical performance of R Lenses, solidly built on a praiseworthy elimination of flare and the attainment of high contrast.
Focus Module 2x 560 / 800 f/5.6
Apo-Telyt-R 560 mm f/5.6 Modular, currently the best lens in the world in the focal length range 500 mm f/5.6 / 560 mm f/5.6 / 600 mm f/5.6.
It features a tremendous truly apochromatic correction, 9 elements in 7 groups, a weight of 4050 g and a minimum focusing distance of 2´15 m, beating in mechanical and optical performance the excellent manual focusing Canon FL 500 mm f/5.6 S.S.C Fluorite, Canon FL 600 mm f/5.6, Nikkor Ai-S 600 mm f/5.6 ED IF produced between 1982 and 1985, Nikkor Ai-S 600 mm f/5.6 ED IF New produced between 1986 and 2005, Pentax 600 mm f/5.6 A* ED (IF) introduced in 1983, and the legendary Pentax FA* 250-600 mm f/5.6 ED (IF) SuperZoom (18 elements in 16 groups) made between 1991 and 2004 set at the focal lengths of 500 mm, 560 mm and 600 mm.
Many people think that lenses featuring a maximum aperture of f/4 or f/5.6 are a kind of run-of-the-mill objectives. Nothing further from reality, since many of the best optical designs in history have boasted that luminosity, as for instance the Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/4 or this Apo-Telyt-R 560 mm f/5.6 Modular, both of them currently the world reference in its focal lengths and maximum aperture.
Apo-Telyt-R 800 mm f/5.6 Modular, currently in 2008 the best 800 mm f/5.6 lens in the world for full frame reflex cameras.
It features a tremendous truly apochromatic correction, 11 elements in 8 groups, a minimum focusing distance of 3´90 m and a weight of 6550 g.
It beats in image quality and optical and mechanical performance both the manual focusing Canon FDn 800 mm f/5.6L (6 elements in 7 groups) and the manual focusing Nikkor 800 mm f/5.6 IF-ED (8 elements in 6 groups), two full-fledged stellar performers in the 800 mm focal length.
Apo-Extender-R 1,4x
Apo-Extender-R 2x
The most high quality optical glass types available in the world are melted according to special Leica formulas.
Focus Module 2x 560 / 800 f/5.6
Apo-Telyt-R 560 mm f/5.6 Modular, currently the best lens in the world in the focal length range 500 mm f/5.6 / 560 mm f/5.6 / 600 mm f/5.6.It features a tremendous truly apochromatic correction, 9 elements in 7 groups, a weight of 4050 g and a minimum focusing distance of 2´15 m, beating in mechanical and optical performance the excellent manual focusing Canon FL 500 mm f/5.6 S.S.C Fluorite, Canon FL 600 mm f/5.6, Nikkor Ai-S 600 mm f/5.6 ED IF produced between 1982 and 1985, Nikkor Ai-S 600 mm f/5.6 ED IF New produced between 1986 and 2005, Pentax 600 mm f/5.6 A* ED (IF) introduced in 1983, and the legendary Pentax FA* 250-600 mm f/5.6 ED (IF) SuperZoom (18 elements in 16 groups) made between 1991 and 2004 set at the focal lengths of 500 mm, 560 mm and 600 mm.
Many people think that lenses featuring a maximum aperture of f/4 or f/5.6 are a kind of run-of-the-mill objectives. Nothing further from reality, since many of the best optical designs in history have boasted that luminosity, as for instance the Apo-Telyt-R 280 mm f/4 or this Apo-Telyt-R 560 mm f/5.6 Modular, both of them currently the world reference in its focal lengths and maximum aperture.
Apo-Telyt-R 800 mm f/5.6 Modular, currently in 2008 the best 800 mm f/5.6 lens in the world for full frame reflex cameras.It features a tremendous truly apochromatic correction, 11 elements in 8 groups, a minimum focusing distance of 3´90 m and a weight of 6550 g.
It beats in image quality and optical and mechanical performance both the manual focusing Canon FDn 800 mm f/5.6L (6 elements in 7 groups) and the manual focusing Nikkor 800 mm f/5.6 IF-ED (8 elements in 6 groups), two full-fledged stellar performers in the 800 mm focal length.
Apo-Extender-R 1,4x
Apo-Extender-R 2x
The most high quality optical glass types available in the world are melted according to special Leica formulas.In the designing of its R Lenses, Leica also pays a lot of attention to the centering of the lens elements, one of the most important and complex phases during lens manufacturing, for it guarantees pin sharp definition on the whole image area, even at full aperture.
Top-notch ultrasonic cleaning of Leica R polished lens elements previous to the intricate and computerized multicoating process.
Painstaking polishing of lens element surfaces in manual focus Leica R Lenses.
Thorough craftsmanship brings about super top level lens elements from glass blanks intended for manual focus Leica R Lenses.
By means of a laser interferometer, each element is put to test for accuracy, which is of top paramount importance for getting the world class optical performance of manual focusing Leica R Lenses.
The highest optical performance of manual focus Leica R lenses is insured through absolute care during production.
Steady quality control testing manual focus Leica R Lenses for axial and radial accuracy in rotation.
Top-notch ultrasonic cleaning of Leica R polished lens elements previous to the intricate and computerized multicoating process.
Painstaking polishing of lens element surfaces in manual focus Leica R Lenses.
Thorough craftsmanship brings about super top level lens elements from glass blanks intended for manual focus Leica R Lenses.
By means of a laser interferometer, each element is put to test for accuracy, which is of top paramount importance for getting the world class optical performance of manual focusing Leica R Lenses.
The highest optical performance of manual focus Leica R lenses is insured through absolute care during production.
Steady quality control testing manual focus Leica R Lenses for axial and radial accuracy in rotation.So as to eliminate any residual deviations, and bearing in mind that the significance of the centering of lens elements increases with the size of the lens diameter, all assembled Leica R lenses are once again laser centered after being mounted.
Using a Leica developed MTF facility, an expert analizes the optical data from finished manual focus Leica R Lenses.
Using a Leica developed MTF facility, an expert analizes the optical data from finished manual focus Leica R Lenses.Top priority task from the product viewpoint is the adapting of the Leica-R cameras and lenses to the current market. Evidently, the Leicas R8 and R9 attached to Leica Modul R were two masterpieces and top-notch photographic tools, but Leica is now trying to make another quantum leap in reflex field: the development of the Leica R10, an integral autofocus camera (without a digital module attached) associated to a probably comprehensive new assortment of autofocus R-Lenses optimised for a digital sensor that probably will be full frame.
But in any case, as is the usual behaviour in Leica, the new reflex camera Leica R10 autofocus will be probably compatible with the classical manual focusing R-lenses in diaphragm priority and manual focus, either through a device designed for it or by means of an adapter, with which the old customers of Leica having the superb Leica R lenses will be able to go on attaining impressive levels of image quality with them.
But in any case, as is the usual behaviour in Leica, the new reflex camera Leica R10 autofocus will be probably compatible with the classical manual focusing R-lenses in diaphragm priority and manual focus, either through a device designed for it or by means of an adapter, with which the old customers of Leica having the superb Leica R lenses will be able to go on attaining impressive levels of image quality with them.